Being Where God Is

At my pre-profession retreat, I was intrigued by the following piece of advice by Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB, from his book The Intentional Life: “Do not forget that wherever you are, with whomsoever you are, whatever you are doing, you can, in the present moment, attain union with God.” That sounds good—but just how do we go about attaining that union?

I believe the key is to train ourselves to look at things as Christ does. For example, upon being in Atchison, Kansas, Christ would say, “How good it is to be here, where God dwells!” instead of “Well, I’m much more likely to find God at the Cathedral, where they have a bigger organ and more relics.” Upon encountering a street person, Christ would say, “How good we can celebrate God’s love by sharing a meal together!” instead of “You know, I’m much more likely to encounter God by sharing a bottle of fine wine over dinner with a famous theologian.” Upon being invited to help peel a bushel of peaches. Christ would say, “Wasn’t it just peachy of God to create such a fragrant and delicious fruit?” instead of “I’m sure I’d learn much more about God by spending my time reading the latest edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

As Fr. Richard Rohr has noted, “…the proper or spiritual way of understanding things is outside the realm of comparison or judgment.” Thus, the key to attaining union with God is to recognize that God is present everywhere, at every moment, instead of making a judgment that some places, peoples, and actions are more worthy of or likely to contain God’s Spirit.

If we define heaven as the place where God is, then it appears heaven is within our grasp whenever we stop limiting God through our comparisons and judgments and instead focus on being aware of and present to the God who is already with us wherever we are, whoever we are with, and whatever we are doing.