GOSPEL REFLECTION: SEPT. 2, 2007

Is God Only in Heaven
Gospel Reflections by: Rev. Fr. Gerry Pierse, C.Ss.R.

Dodong went from the provinces to work in Manila. He got a job painting the white line in the middle of the road. On his first day he painted fifty meters, twenty on the second day and only ten on the third. The foreman was rather surprised. He called him in and said, "Dodong, how come you painted fifty meters on the first day, twenty on the second and only ten today?" "Sir," answered Dodong, "can't you see that the can of paint was getting to be farther and farther away!" Poor Dodong's progress was limited by his thinking that the can of paint could only be in one place to which he had to continue to go back. It improved immensely when he found that he could move it along or even bring it with him all the time.


Our spiritual progress is also inhibited if we have a limited perception of where God is. For many, God is "up there" in heaven and religion is an effort to attract his attention so that he will visit us here on earth. Liturgy becomes an effort to capture the distant God and make him present to us. People whose God is in heaven only, are ever looking for miracles and signs of God's presence. Mention a dancing sun or a weeping Madonna and they will travel thousands of kilometers to see it.


Non Christians have also been led to believe that our God is only in heaven. While attending the Dalai Lama Seminar in London, I was in a group discussion. A Buddhist lady psychiatrist said, "I pity you Christians. Your Deity is so far away. For us the Buddha nature is close, it is reverenced within ourselves and within each person." Later, I was a little self conscious in our liturgy and I could see how she got that impression. There was indeed a lot of prayer to the "heavenly" or "almighty" Father. One could easily not notice that it always ended "through the Son in the Holy Spirit."


The wonderful thing about Christianity is that we have very rich paradigms, or frameworks, that reveal to us different modes of God's presence. We have the doctrine of the Trinity, which we celebrate today. According to this teaching our God is not only a transcendent one in heaven but also a God who became incarnate, who took human flesh and became one of us. This God not only came into the world but continues to journey with us today in the world through his Holy Spirit. He is a God who indwells in every human heart. So our sense of the divine presence is threefold and more complete and rich, rather than less complete than the paradigms of other religions.


We know very very little about God, so the little we know should be reverenced and valued. The fact that God is Trinity tells us that our God is above us, around us and within us. If we are to relate to God as fully as possible we should be relating to all modes of his presence as fully as possible. If a person is to be healthy the brain, the heart and the stomach must all be functioning and inter-functioning well. We cannot be healthy if one is neglected. So, too, if we are to be spiritually well we must be relating healthily to God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


For many centuries the emphasis has been on God as Father and our Church had become a medium of relating to that God in heaven. Praise and worship, and asking help from a distant God were seen as the main reasons for prayer. Since the Second Vatican Council in the mid 1960's, the Church has redefined itself as the People of God. People are now the main sign of God's presence in the world. Our scriptures tell us of how God dealt with his people in times gone by. We now pray by listening to what is happening in our own lives and in the world around us through the words of the Bible. This is listening to the signs of the times. This listening puts us in touch with the Spirit within. This leads us to meditation, to prayer by being still, being present to the Presence within us which is Life itself.


Each of these ways of prayer, like the functions of the body, have their place and their value. Through them we relate to the Trinity, God one and three. To emphasize one way of prayer, or person of the Trinity, at the expense of the others would be, like Dodong, to believe that the can of paint can only be in one fixed place.



Taken from Sundays into Silence - A Pathway to Life. Copyright © 1998 by Claretian Publications