THERE is always a tension between how we think of a God who is off in the heavens and a God who is made visible and present in our everyday lives. Theologians talk about a transcendent God and a God who is imminent.
But the clarion call of Christians is centred on the incarnation – the idea and reality that God became man. Once we believe in that, then surely we are bound to see the reality of God in the world about us.
Everything about the church is focused on making God present in the world. And if we really believe that then we will see the face of God in every human being. If we accept that then we will be able to say with conviction what we read in tomorrow’s Gospel, “You are the light of the world”. (Matthew 5:14). Christianity is centred on Christ – the God who became man – there would be no sense to Christianity if it were not focused around people. And in that context, Christians have no choice but to insist on justice and charity for all peoples. The kingdom of God can only become possible if we play our part in creating an environment, which is amenable and complementary to the justice and charity of God. It is at our peril that we talk exclusively of a God out there, a transcendent God.
That’s the sort of God that the young curate believes in in Strumpet City. But the old priest knows what life is like for the poor, and his sympathy and solidarity is with those who are forced to eke out an existence in miserable conditions.
Great literature often stops us in our tracks and forces us to appreciate the plight of the less fortunate in our society.
We are living in uncharted waters at present in Ireland. There is an air of uncertainty and people are simply worried about what the future holds in store. The people who are most vulnerable and fragile are those who have the least economic clout.
No one who calls him/herself a Christian can close his/her mind or heart to those who are faced with intolerable financial burdens.
How can the person who is in daily terror, worrying about their survival have an opportunity to think of the face of God? And yet they do and can. And that’s part of the mystery of grace.
But it is a caricature of all things to do with God to sit back and feel comfortable while there are those who live intolerably poor lives.
German writer Hans Fallada in Little Man, What Now, written in 1933 before Hitler came to power, portrays the life of a couple, who experience the drudgery and misery of being poor.
“How could one really laugh in a world where captains of industry are allowed to line their own pockets and make hundreds of mistakes, whereas the little people who had always done their best were humiliated and squashed? A bit more justice would do no harm at all, thought Emma.” Of course she is correct. God wants us to be able to laugh.
If we are not passionate and real in our search for justice for everyone we cannot dare begin to talk about the presence of God in the world. Jesus tells us, “Your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). What is so extraordinary and radical about the Christian message is that there is the conviction and belief that it is through God’s grace, which is a true, unearned gift, we can begin to talk about bringing about the kingdom of God.
Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how people who use God’s Word could ever be at peace with themselves as long as there is one person who is treated in a manner that is not in keeping with their status as being a child of God. That is a right, which is part of the identity of every human being.
The grace that is afforded every human being gives us the hope and indeed the possibility to allow the light of God to shine in the face of every human being. Anything less is simply not good enough.
Just as we believe in the incarnation, so too can we be as certain in faith of the possibility in striving to realise that God's light can shine through the face of every human being. – MC