Do you pray to a God who is in heaven and distant from you? When you receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist or go and worship Him in the tabernacle or monstrance, do you see Him as out there and over there?
I'm reading a book that has changed my perspective. God isn't just close to us. He lives within us by sanctifying grace. I knew that intellectually, but One With Jesus by Fr. Paul de Jaegher, S.J. made me understand it in a totally personal way. It changed my understanding of the title St. Teresa of Avila's book, The Interior Castle which I've only browsed. Now the title makes me think immediately of the castle of my soul where the King dwells as long as I'm in the state of grace. What a tragedy to assault the castle and the king through sin.
This short book, one of Mother Teresa's favorites, is a goldmine of clarity on the reality of what a life with Jesus offers when we are aware moment by moment that He is one with us as St. Paul says. "I live not now I; but Christ lives in me."
I don't want to forget for one moment that I am with Jesus really every single moment through sanctifying grace, as close as is possible outside the few moments that He is with me in Holy Communion. That isn't enough for Jesus Who longs for union with us:
Jesus, then, is forever yearning to love His Father unto folly; yearning to love him not only by His own divine life; not only with His own heart on fire with love; He is yearning to love Him in millions of hearts and through millions of lives, even to the end of time.
In this season of Emmanuel, let us never forget that God is with us, really and intimately. We are never alone; we are never without a friend, more than a friend, but "God with us."
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