THE
PRESENCE OF GOD
A Sermon delivered on the occasion of
the dedication of the church of
Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Deer Park,
Long Island, NY ~ July 7, 1963
“They shall make me a sanctuary: and I
will dwell in the midst of them” Exodus 25,8.
May it please Your Excellency, Bishop
Kellenberg, Father Behan, Rt. Rev. and Very Rev. Monsignori, Rev.
Fathers, Rev. Sisters, People and friends of the parish of Ss. Cyril and
Methodius:
To those of us who believe in the truth
of the message of salvation brought to the world by Jesus Christ, the
eternal Son of God, the ultimate meaning of human life is crystallized
in a few simple words: the love of God ~ the love of God for man, and
the love of man for God.
The love of God for man is never-ending,
all pervasive, infinite, infinitely patient in the face of rebuff,
infinitely warm and gracious when returned every so little. God has
loved men so much that He has created them, given them existence, given
them life, given them knowledge, love and power. Nor do all these
wonderful gifts exhaust the depths of God’s mysterious love for men.
For some reason unknown to us, God, who is infinitely happy in Himself,
God, who needs no one and nothing to add to or complete His happiness,
God has so loved us that He wants to live intimately with us, to be more
present to us than a husband is to a wife, more present to us than we
are to ourselves.
In the message of salvation which we
read in the Bible no theme is more frequent, none more significant than
God’s manifest desire to dwell among men, to live with men. In the book
of Proverbs wisdom, which the church has traditionally identified with
the 2nd person of the Trinity, the Son of God, declares that
His delight is to live with the sons of men. In the story of creation
as told to us in the book of Genesis, God is portrayed as living closely
and familiarly with Adam and Eve. It is only sin, sinful self-will
which causes Him to deprive them of His presence.
But so great is His desire to be present
to me that He reveals Himself to the
patriarch Abraham and promises to build up a great people who will
belong to Him and to whom He will belong as their God. The promise was
fulfilled when the Hebrews, encamped at the foot of
Mt. Sinai, made a covenant
with God. They bound themselves to Him, and He bound Himself to them as
their God.
It was then that God said
to Moses: "They shall make me a sanctuary! and I will dwell in the midst
of them." When the people had made a tabernacle for God according to the
instructions of Moses, "The cloud covered the tabernacle. . .and the
glory of the Lord filled it" (Exodus 40,32). God had come to dwell among
his people.
In the time of King
Solomon a glorious temple replaced the tabernacle and became the House
of God among His people. In the Holy of Holies of the people God Himself
dwelt.
But this presence of God
to His beloved, His chosen people, was still only an invisible, a purely
spiritual presence. And the people, because of their sins were not
admitted to His immediate presence. Only the High Priest could enter the
Holy of Holies, and he only once a year.
The love of God for men
led Him to seek to be even more intimately, more really present to them.
And so He inspired the Hebrew prophets to forecast a time when He would
really come and dwell among men. This promise He fulfilled magnificently
when, as St. John tells us in his Gospel, the Word was made flesh and
dwelt amongst us. In the incarnate God, in Jesus Christ, the God man,
God is truly and physically present among men. He has clothed Himself
with human nature, He has become a man among men, He has entered the
very blood stream of the human race and became a brother to all human
beings. In Jesus Christ God lived with us as a man, walked with us,
talked with us, worked with us, rejoiced with us, was sad with us,
lived, suffered and died with us.
Nor does the fact that
Christ in the flesh has ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of
His Father mean that God has withdrawn His presence amongst us. Christ, as
we all know, instituted the sacrifice and sacrament of the Holy Eucharist,
the Blessed Sacrament. In the Eucharist God still lives in our midst,
still walks and talks with us, rejoices with us.
God so loves us, then, that
He still, in His own flesh and blood, dwells with us. This divine love is
still active in human affairs. But what of man's love for God, man's
response to God's love for Him?
The love of man for God is
always a fragile thing; it grows and declines, it waxes and wanes, it
falters like the footsteps of a weary man, or it soars strongly like a
magnificent jet plane.
Today, here at this
ceremony, man's love for God is soaring triumphantly to the heavens like
the strong walls and roof of this magnificent church. This church, which
our beloved Bishop has just dedicated, is the sign, the symbol of your
love for God, of your response to His love for you. "Make me a sanctuary,"
He has said to you, "and I will dwell among you." You have built Him a
sanctuary, a tabernacle, a home, and in a few moments, when the Bishop
consecrates the bread and the wine, Jesus Christ your Savior and your God,
will come to dwell among you forever.
This is the inner meaning of
this dedication of the church of SS. Cyril and Methodius. God so loves you
that He wills to dwell amongst you. You so love God that you have built
Him a sanctuary and He has come to dwell among you. The building of this
church, the courage of the Bishop and of your pastor in deciding to build
it, the sacrifices you have all made to make its building possible, the
building itself, the various parts, the nave, the baptistry, the
confessionals, the windows, the lights, the pulpit, the sanctuary, altar
and tabernacle, all these are a testimony to your faith in God's love, to
the love you return to God for His love of you.
Understood in this way,
today's ceremony is only a retelling of the everlasting story of God's
love for man and of man's loving response to God.
SS Cyril and Methodius, the
Apostles of the Slavs, were men, bishops so convinced of the truth of this
story that they converted the Slavonic peoples of Europe to faith in Our
Lord Jesus Christ. And when the Slavs were converted they too built
churches so that God might dwell amongst them in the tabernacle of the
Eucharist.
You have emulated, you have
imitated those whom SS Cyril and Methodius converted to the faith. You
too, in faith, have built a home for God in your midst.
But this magnificent church,
this tremendous building, even though blest, is only a building, something
made of steel and stone, of cement and brick. It is well to remember the
theme which we find in the Postcommunion prayer for the commemoration of
the dedication of a church. There the church says that God has prepared a
tabernacle for Himself of living chosen stones. You are the living chosen
stones with which God builds His true church. For He wishes to dwell, not
simply in the tabernacle under the sign of the Eucharist, He wishes to
dwell in your hearts. For only when He dwells in your hearts are you the
living, chosen stones from which He constructs His chosen home, the
eternal kingdom of heaven.
Let this building then, be
for you, not an end, but a beginning, not simply a goal already
accomplished, but a challenge to a new and more fruitful life with God, a
life in which your hearts should become the tabernacle of God among men.
"They shall make me a tabernacle: and I will dwell among them."
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