A God That Walks with Us

Reflection for the Fifth Sunday of Easter by Fr. Earl Valdez

Raffaele, “The Council of the Gods” | Photo from Greek Gods Paradise

Unlike the Greek and Roman deities that are the stuff of mythologies and epics, the mythology and religion of the Hebrews tell us that nobody is capable of seeing God. And if one had the chance to do so, the fact that one has remained alive afterward should thank the benevolence of God for letting Him do so. 

And I think historically, this has become the case because the history of Israel followed decades, if not centuries, after that of the Ancient Greeks. They have this consciousness that the possibility of becoming a God exceeds and goes beyond one that controls nature. If the other gods were responsible for different domains in life, then this God goes even beyond them, so much so that it would be unbearable for one to see this God so powerful.

However, that is not the very reason why the God of Israel has become different and stood apart from all Gods. Aside from the fact that He has taken upon Himself and exceeded all the powers of the gods, making Him worthy of being worshipped, He is a God who approached humanity differently, one who manifested Himself, called a people, and established a covenant with them. 

In other words, it is in the God of Israel and the tradition that was formed around this conception that one sees a personal God. He is a God who established a relationship with people, who told them to establish a Kingdom, and struck a covenant with them. Therefore, neither the people nor God was supposed to act on what one wants alone; rather, true and right recognition of this God depended upon the terms of the established relationship with them, a covenant that is less about the Law and more about the relationship between the two. 

Unknown Italian Master, “David Bearing the Ark of the Covenant” | Photo from the Meisterdrucke

And it is within this context that we understand how the Incarnation, which captures the entire reality of Christ from His birth, to His passion and death, and all the way to the Resurrection makes sense. The personal God has indeed become a true human person in Christ in as much as He is also a true human being. The personal God indeed became among us, walked with us, shared meals with us, healed and forgave us, and even took upon the consequence of things that He should not have had in the first place: the reality of suffering and death. What the other gods were foreign towards and were avoiding, the personal God embraced willingly, in order for us to share a new life with Him. 

This finally brings out the true distinction between the gods of old and the God who made Himself flesh: it is by love and companionship that He showed His divinity. He reversed the order of the old gods that named control, domination, and servitude. He shifted his attention not to those of influence and power, but the nameless and marginalized; he reversed the destiny of life and death, and put them in order, saying that the death of self leads to life. And while he did not raise the level of the weak to that of the strong, or reversed its order, He did something greater: he gathered everyone into the abundance of the feast, in which He shares Himself in the meal. 

Michelangelo, “The Last Judgment” | Photo from the UniSR blog

This is the God that we believe in, and as they say today, let that sink in. I said all these because it is another way of understanding what it means to be a Christian. In other words, we live for service as the first deacons did, we believe in receiving the Lord as Saint Paul did, and, even a confused Philip was right about one thing: to have seen the Father in the Son is enough for us. 

Hence, in seeing all these, one thing remains: to see the Lord and to let Him be seen through our lives. May this become the goal of our faith that continues to long for His presence, His consolation, and His love. Amen. 

Icon of the Church as the Ark of Salvation Photo from Uncut Mountain Supply