{"id":2613,"date":"2018-08-13T07:57:08","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T11:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2613"},"modified":"2018-08-13T07:57:08","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T11:57:08","slug":"knowing-gods-presence-in-our-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/knowing-gods-presence-in-our-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowing God’s Presence in Our Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s first reading (8\/13\/18 – Monday of 19th Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2<\/a>) from Ezekiel provides what can be both a powerful and confusing image.\u00a0 It can be confusing to us because it relies on imagery unfamiliar to us but known to the Israelites as images of God.\u00a0 It can be a powerful image because it is a vision of God’s presence to Ezekiel in that moment.<\/p>\n

One might want to ask why God choose to appear to Ezekiel at this particular place at this particular time.\u00a0 To answer this one must understand the setting.\u00a0 The Israelites had just been defeated by the Babylonians.\u00a0 Many of them, including Ezekiel, had been taken away in exile.\u00a0 Being held in exile in a foreign land would be bad for anyone.\u00a0 To add to their distress we should remember that for many religions in those days, the god(s) were considered local gods so if you moved from one land to another, your god did not go with you.\u00a0 Of course, we know that there is but one God and he is present everywhere.\u00a0 Nonetheless, this was disconcerting to the Israelites.<\/p>\n

Ezekiel, as well as the other Israelites, needed to know that God was with them in exile.\u00a0 It was with this in mind that the Lord gives this vision to Ezekiel as a sign of God being present to them.<\/p>\n

When the imagery is understood, this is a very powerful image of God’s presence.\u00a0 This would be an “epiphany” of the Lord.\u00a0 The word “epiphany” might remind us of the story of the magi coming to see baby Jesus, God lying in a manger.\u00a0 The word “epiphany” means a manifestation or appearance of the God.\u00a0 The Old Testament contains various epiphanies.\u00a0 There is the time when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3).\u00a0 There is the time (1 Kings 19:9-13) when God appears to Elijah not in the earthquake, or wind, or fire.\u00a0 God came that today in a “light silent sound<\/em>,” a tiny whisper.\u00a0 That’s why it’s important for us to have quiet time in prayer, to know God’s presence in the silence.<\/p>\n

I also think of the story of the great flood with Noah (Genesis 6-8).\u00a0 Think of how Noah and his family felt on the ark when all they could see was water.\u00a0 They might have wondered if they would ever see land again.\u00a0 Without land, they could run out of food.\u00a0 They could have been afraid.\u00a0 In the midst of that Moses sent out various birds from time to time to look for land.\u00a0 I can only imagine the relief they felt when the dove came back to them with an olive leaf.\u00a0 The flood wasn’t over yet but they knew God was present in that moment.<\/p>\n

We might feel overwhelmed by what goes on in our lives.\u00a0 We might be afraid.\u00a0 We need to know God is present with us.\u00a0 We celebrate the Eucharist as a way of giving thanks to God but also as a way to for us to know God is present with us, first in his Word read at Mass, and then in the Eucharist. The Eucharist we receive is small host.\u00a0 It is small yet it is so much more.\u00a0\u00a0It is Jesus<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>coming to us.\u00a0 It is Jesus<\/strong><\/em> giving us the bread of life<\/em><\/strong> to strengthen us in our lives.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s first reading (8\/13\/18 – Monday of 19th Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2) from Ezekiel provides what can be both a powerful and confusing image.\u00a0 It can be confusing to us because it relies on imagery unfamiliar to us but known to the Israelites as images of God.\u00a0 It can be a powerful image …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Knowing God’s Presence in Our Lives’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[113,82],"tags":[488],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-G9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2613"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613\/revisions\/2615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}