My Dear Friends, 

I would like to really share some deep thoughts with you about the presence of God. I think that this is an idea that can help us greatly to deepen our relationship with God as the Father, with Jesus as a brother, with the Holy Spirit as the Lord and the Giver of Life. There is a text I want to share with you. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Mt 28: 19-20) What a fantastic word! God is with us always until the end of the world. You and I should be always with the Lord because He wants always to be with us so that we can walk with Him, walk with Jesus, with His Father, with the Holy Spirit in life; walk as people in love with God, like Abraham, walking in His presence. 

God had told Abraham to walk in His presence. Do you feel that you are walking in the presence of God? Develop an awareness that God loves you, wants to be with you and wants to work for you. Walk in love in the presence of God and He will lead you to discover deeper truths about Himself and about the events surrounding you and throughout the world. God will lead you to discover the truths of His creation. You would then have a more profound sense of His creation because you would look at creation through God’s eyes and your perceptions would then take on divine dimensions. We would see things the way God sees them. We would begin to understand that there are things that we have to remove from our lives in order to have a greater love and a greater freedom. On the other hand, there are things we would have to draw into our lives, always being aware of the presence of God. “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28) We are people called by God for whom everything should work out for the good. The deep question is, “Do we walk with God?” 

Think of the presence of people. It’s easy to be aware of the presence of someone who is physically present to us. For example, in a house where some children are playing another child walks in. You can see the friend walk in and subsequently disappear because you may forget that he/she is around. You don’t think about the fact that the child is present right there in the house. In like manner, it’s easy for us to take people for granted or to be so busy that we don’t really act as if we know that somebody is around. We can live in a house maybe for hours and hours not seeing one another. How present are we to one another if that’s the way we behave? I think that if we look at the way we can be present to others we can then understand how we can be present to God. 

We can feel the presence of some people even when they are not visible to us. We can sense their presence. Years ago we had the Superior General of our community come to visit us from Rome. We know he was in the house even is he was in another room with some group other than our own. We knew! We just felt his presence there! We could sense that he was there! We could not lose sight of the fact that he was around. It was as if the house was full with that person’s presence. 

When I was in the seminary we conducted summer camps. Occasionally I was sent to check the camps during the winter season. What a contrast there was! The summer season abounded with activity and the presence of other human beings. Now, during the winter there was emptiness. So empty! Just empty rooms! Just walls, floors, ceilings, furniture! Empty furniture! Nobody around! No voices! It was so empty. This is a good example of the difference between a presence and an absence or emptiness in a house. 

Once, having been invited by a friend who lived along a lonely road, I dropped in for a visit. There was nobody in the house; it was so empty. I stayed only a minute; then I walked out. What an absence of presence!

On Holy Saturday when the Tabernacle is empty, there is a similar absence of presence. The church is so different on Holy Saturday. Everybody should try to go the Holy Saturday liturgies in order to experience the absence of the presence of Jesus. All year long Jesus remains present in the Tabernacle, and on this one day, Holy Saturday, He is not present. What emptiness! 

I was once alone in one of our big houses during one summer. Boy, did I hear noises! I could hear cracking sounds and I was all alone. There was no other presence yet I wrongly perceived a presence. It was all “mind over matter”. 

Now, when I speak of “presence” it doesn’t always mean that somebody has to be physically present. A loved one can be present in our thoughts, in our minds. Somebody you really care for may have a real deep problem; perhaps a child, a brother or sister, a friend. They are ever present in your mind. You think of them from morning till night; you wake up during the night and you think about them. If you know that somebody has been hurt and is in the hospital, he/she is so present in your mind. He/she may not be near, may be miles and miles away, may be in an intensive care unit; yet they’re so present in your mind. You have them on your brain. You can’t get some people out of your mind because of something that happened or because of the fact that they are sick, or because they’re in need. Can you understand what I’m trying to say? The presence of people! There doesn’t have to be a physical presence for presence to be real.

I think that by the same token we can spend hours or days not thinking of somebody. You know the old proverb: “Far from the eyes, far from the heart”. When friends move out of town and we don’t see them, we can go for months and months without thinking of them because they’re not present. It would not be quite that way if we loved them deeply. If we really cared, the fact that they were away might intensify their presence in our minds. Well, when we’re talking about the presence of God, we’re talking of a definite clear presence. God should always be present to us; present in our minds. God should be as present to us as some of our friends who may be far away in a hospital. God should be as present in our minds as are the people we know who may be having problems and are constantly in our thoughts and prayers. 

How present is God to you? Is God really so present that you walk with Him? Is God present in you in such a way that you are conscious of his presence? Become aware of the presence of God! Walk with Him! Believe His word, “Know that I am with you always until the end of the world.” (Mt 28:20) How present is Jesus to you? How present are you to Him? Walking with Jesus, walking with the Father, walking with the Holy Spirit will become a new springtime for you. Walking with God, hand in hand, letting Him lead you, making your will compatible to His will, following His way will bring to your soul the peace for which it longs. Oh, if you and I could believe in the word of God, the word of Jesus, “I am with you always.” If we could believe in the word of Jesus in John 15:15,”I call you my friends.” How friendly are you with Jesus? Jesus calls you his friend, has no secrets from you, has told you all that the Father has told Him. If we could come to the discovery that Jesus wants to be loved, that the Holy Spirit is in us, that the Father is in us, Oh, the difference it would make in our lives. 

Heavenly Father, help us to understand how you are present to us, how Jesus and the Holy Spirit are present in our lives. We need to know that. Father, we need your help. Jesus, we need to be aware of that presence. Holy Spirit, we need you to teach us how you are present in our lives, more present than anything else, more present than anyone else. Please show us. We ask this in Jesus’ name and we thank you.