Lectio
“The religious experience that really matters is the one that is always available, always there as an element in our ordinary humdrum affairs. And this of course means that religious experience is not such a dramatic and exciting thing as we usually think it to be.”
— Karen Kilby, Karl Rahner: A Brief Introduction
Meditatio
God is the ever-present presence of love presencing itself out, in and as the very presence of all time, space, and being. Nothing exists outside of or separate from God’s very nature — the self-communicated gift of Godself expressed not only as our individual lives, but our collective life, and even as life itself. Creation is not merely an event that once happened, but a process that is always happening, for as long as God wills creation into being.
This means that every moment, every circumstance, and every interaction is the result of God’s will, perhaps not in the way that things happen, but in the fact that they happen. God is not the author of every particular event so much as the condition of possibility for any event at all. Every thought, word, and relationship, even in our brokenness — our denial, abandonment, and rejection of God — has its origin in God’s loving self-communication in and as the very lives within which this brokenness is possible. For nothing exists outside of God’s willing and speaking it into being.
In this way, there is no such thing as an ordinary or secular experience. All experiences are divine in their origin in that, if God did not will them into possibility, they would not be possible. All experiences, therefore, are spiritual experiences. All experiences are religious experiences.
In the face of trauma, abuse, violence, suffering, and death, this is a difficult word to accept. But it is not that God wills our discomfort, our pain, and our misery. Quite the contrary. What God desires is that we freely and willingly receive the gift of his loving presence, in and as our very lives — to be lovingly present to him and to those around us, and to use the gift of creation to create.
But we choose — or others choose for us — brokenness. We choose to use this gift of life, matter, and relationship in broken ways, to create broken relationships, and to destroy that which love creates. And we are free to choose this because that freedom, too, is God’s gift. With this gift of life, of love, and relationship — of God’s very presence — we choose other than life, other than love, and other than relationship. Where there is wholeness, we bring brokenness. Where there is light, we bring darkness. Where there is life, we bring death.
All of this because we do not see, do not acknowledge, or do not care that this moment — and every moment before and after it — is the divine gift of God’s love being gifted to us as this very moment. And yet God continues to give, continues to love, continues to pour himself out as the very life we take for granted — ordinary, humdrum, and overflowing with grace.
Oratio
All that I am
all that I can and will be
a gift
if only I can see it
but even when I don’t
even when I can’t
even when I refuse
to acknowledge you
you do not stop
nor even slow down
nor withdraw your presence
from me
for I know
I would cease to be
if you ceased loving
yourself
into me
Contemplatio
Where in my life am I moving through this moment — this gift — without seeing it for what it is?
Related Scripture
“O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” — Psalm 104:24 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Nothing Is Wasted: God’s Purpose in Every Moment, which explores how God uses every experience, relationship, and circumstance — including those we resist — to draw us more deeply into union with him.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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