I feel sad whenever I hear young people treat religion nonchalantly, as though it is not a big deal. It’s as though it has nothing to do with their lives and could do nothing in their lives to make it meaningful.
To some, it has become more like a myth, a story that may be interesting to learn but has no relationship whatsoever to real life.
Meanwhile, they search for many things in all the wrong places. Just like every human being, they search for truth, happiness and love. They search for the meaning of life.
Do they not know that they can find all of these things in religion? In God?
Religion, at its substance, is that which holds our beliefs about God. It includes the way we live our faith, faith in the One who gives our lives meaning and everything else that could make our lives beautiful and worth living for.
Contrary to popular opinion, God is not a genie that grants wishes on a whim. He is not a tyrant who rules from a distance, waiting for every chance to punish those who sin. And He is not a mere force that awaits our bidding in the same way some people today call upon the “Universe” to manifest their wants.
God is a Father. God is a Healer. God is the Savior who descended from heaven itself to walk among us and offer His very life upon the cross so we may have eternal happiness and life.
God is not a thing. He is a Person who awaits our attention. He is Someone who loves us and pursues us, showering us with His blessings, though we may not even know He is there.
He knows what our hearts are thirsting for. He knows the emptiness we feel inside.
People may not know it, but they are searching for God deep within.
We search for God when we search for beauty, watching the sunset and being in awe each time, travelling the world to taste the wonders He has made, listening to music and crying, touched by some kind of wonder we could never really grasp.
We search for God when we search for the truth, learning new things and using our minds, trying to solve the mysteries that make this universe work.
We search for God when we search for love, forming and nourishing our relationships, moving from heart to heart, touching bliss and being shattered, wondering why no person could ever fill our hearts to the full.
We search for God, but we don’t know it. He awaits our return, but we are too stubborn to look His way.
How many times did we shrug our shoulders upon hearing someone talk about Jesus? How many times have we been offended simply because someone offered to pray for us?
It is not too late. There is no limit to the mercy of our Father.
No matter how great you think your sins may be, they can never compare to the depths of God’s love for you.
It’s true. We are not alone in the universe. Not because there are aliens from distant stars but because there is a God who created the stars and the heavens, the One who holds everything in the universe together with His power, wisdom and love.
“God is an ocean, a fire, a living fountain…That is the essence of prayer: this contact with a living God, a God who reacts not like a simple inanimate being but like a living person, with a thrill of joy, with the gift of Himself.” (Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, Where The Spirit Breathes)
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.” (Saint Augustine of Hippo)
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” – John 3:16-17 NABRE
Jocelyn Soriano is the author of To Love an Invisible God. “Is it really possible to love a God we cannot even see?”
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