We are called, as disciples of Jesus, to be ever mindful of being in God’s holy presence. Those of us who are products of Catholic Schools know full well that the reminder of being in the presence of God was almost taken for granted. Statues, crosses, religious sisters, brothers and priests, prayer time throughout the day, attendance at Mass regularly, all of these pointed us in the direction of being in God’s presence.
Nonetheless, it is always easy to take being in God’s presence for granted. Perhaps his ever present nature in the midst of our daily lives is easy to overlook. Most of us do not work in environments that drip of Catholic, or at least religious, symbolism and language. The secular religion of the world dominates much of our consciousness. Presidents of corporations have their pictures on walls, it is the name of donors, board members, or employees of the month who gain special attention with their names on plaques and doors, and not the saints or founders of religious communities. It is easy to forget the eternal omnipresence of God.
Cleopas and his companion thought they were attuned to the action of God in their lives. They were disciples of Jesus and were well aware of all the events that had happened over that Passover weekend in Jerusalem. They are close enough to the eleven that they already knew that Jesus had appeared to them earlier in the day. Yet they walked with Jesus, listened to him discuss the Scriptures, and discussed their meaning along the way, all the while they were oblivious as to whom it was with whom they were speaking.
How often do we overlook the encounters that we have with Jesus along the way in our lives? This happens not just to those who have chosen to intentionally ignore God present in their lives, but also to those who seem to be deeply tuned in to faith.
Like these disciples, we can easily put God into the box where we can keep him most comfortably in our lives. We have those situations where we are most open to the encounter or where we go to seek God. Our refuge might be at Mass, or our prayers in the morning or evening, perhaps a Holy Hour or some other devotional that we focus on during the day. We can feel good about ourselves for our prayerfulness and attentiveness. Yet, we can easily miss God present in those circumstances where we tune him out. We might fail to miss God in our neighbor, a crying child, the street beggar, a marginalized coworker or classmate. We might also decide that we want to encounter God in one form of prayer but not another. While we all have a particular style of prayer, certainly we cannot box God into what we want, ignoring where he might be calling us.
These two disciples on the road to Emmaus were so confident in what they knew and what they thought, they knew that they didn’t know that they were in the presence of the resurrected Jesus for the two hours or so it might have taken to walk that way.
God makes himself present to us in many and varied ways throughout our days, let us not be blinded as were these disciples, but let us encounter him in every ordinary experience of life.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.