8 February 2022
Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
As a Jesuit novice in the first years of my training, I had the blessing of living and working with some fellow Jesuits in Central America. When a member of the Jesuit community died it was amazing to hear the stories of those who gathered at the wake and the funeral. Again and again, I heard many families say that when Padre Nicolas came to their home, his first question was “Where is God?” And he would wait patiently for the children of the family to give the answer he was fishing for. The kids would point to their heart and say, “Here, Padre, God is here in my heart.”
At the dedication of the first Temple, King Solomon asks, “Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?” (1 Kings 8:27) And the moving answer then as now is: Yes! Indeed, the entirety of the created universe cannot contain God. God is always bigger. And yet, this infinite God comes to dwell among us. And, creating us in His image and likeness, from the first moment of our existence, He dwells within us. Even more tangibly, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, He comes to abide ever more fully in our body and soul. Today, let us ask God for the grace to recognize God who dwells among us and in our hearts, and to worship Him as in His Temple.