Half-Hours With The Saints and Servants of God/Part 1: 6. On the Presence of God
6.— On the Presence of God.
"The sinner hath provoked the Lord—God is not before his eyes."
God sees me. Ah, what a phrase is this for him who understands it well! How capable it is to control our passions, to moderate our desires, to prevent us from sinning, to sustain our courage, to animate our fervour, to regulate our conduct!
God sees me. He is ever present, always mindful of me, thinks ever of me; whereas I heed Him not, I am not attentive to Him, I never think of Him. Oh! shame, shame!
God sees me. With what respect and modesty ought I not to behave in His presence! The seraphim hide their faces with their wings, and I, a mere worm of the earth, do not tremble.
God sees me. Shall I dare, in the presence of Thy glance so infinitely pure, commit deeds which I dare not even show to man? Shall I dare to sin in Thy presence, knowing that sin and the sinner is hated by Thee, and to condemn the sinner Thou hast no wish?
God sees me. He penetrates into the innermost recesses of my heart; He sees therein every desire, and discerns every intention. With what purity of intention then ought I not to perform every action.
God is present not only by the immensity of His being, but in a more efficacious manner. He is with me to help me, to support me, to act with me, to work with me. I can do nothing without Him, but also I can do everything with Him. I cannot make the least movement, conceive the least desire, do the smallest action, unless He lends me His help and assistance, even when I would wish to offend Him. What condescension! Why ought I to abuse it? But He always accommodates Himself to my inclinations; He subjects Himself to my will. Is it not reasonable that I should subject my will to His? He concurs always with me. Is it not right and just that I should act in concert with Him?
Not only does God act within me, but He also acts with every creature for me. It is for me that He gives light and warmth to the sun, that He refreshes me with the breeze, that He cheers me with the fire; should I not be unjust if I did not make use of these creations for His glory alone? Should I not be ungrateful if I basely converted such blessings into opportunities of sinning against Him who created them for me?
We do our works in the presence of God, when we practise the presence of God while we do them. There are six ways of practising the presence of God which are given in books, and from which souls should select those which are most suited to them, but not try to practise more than one.
The first, is to try to realise God as He is in heaven; the second, to regard ourselves in Him as in His immensity; the third, is to look at each creature as if it were a sacrament having God hidden under it; the fourth, is to think of Him, and see Him by pure faith; the fifth, is to look at Him as in ourselves rather than outside of us, though He is both; and the sixth, is to gravitate towards Him by an habitual loving-mindfulness of heart, a kind of instinct which is no uncommon growth of prayer, and comes sooner than would be expected when men strive to serve God out of the single motive of holy love.
For the perfection of our ordinary actions, we should do them in the sight of Jesus, that is, to use the words of the missal, by Christ, with Christ, and in Christ To do our actions by Christ, is to do them in dependence upon Him, as He did everything in dependence on His Father, and by the movement of His Spirit. To do our actions with Christ is to practise the same virtues as our Lord, to clothe ourselves with the same dispositions, and to act from the same intentions, all according to the measure of the lowliness of our possibilities. To do our actions in Christ is to unite ours with His, and to offer them to God along with His, so that for the sake of His, they may be accepted on high.
Theological Definition of the Presence of God.
When one speaks of the presence of God, there are two ways of looking upon it. The first, is that God is present to us, that is to say, that we think of Him, and that, in the eyes of faith, we look upon His Divine Being as intimately present in the place in which we are. The second, is that we are present to God, that is to say, that He sees us, and is always looking upon us, so that nothing escapes His observation — words, deeds, thoughts, desires, and intentions— and that wherever we may be, we may always have Him for a spectator, witness, and judge of all that we do. That should we act well or ill, such actions are always in His presence and before His eyes.