Campus Ministries: Catholic Ministries
WHO NEEDS GOD?
Juan was a youth leader--wonderfully gifted and giving--of our South Bronx church group. His struggle was to survive the deadly embrace his alcoholic father had upon his beautiful family, survive the siren call of sex and drugs and violence in the streets, survive soulless schools that cared little about him. During those turbulent adolescent years Juan's need for God was palpable, and his fidelity exemplary.
With God's help, Juan did survive. He made it through college and on to a good job counseling teens in a troubled South Bronx school Juan still carries inner wounds from his childhood. He has become grossly overweight. Nonetheless Juan feels that he has "made it." He continues to believe in God, but no longer feels any immediate need for God. Now Juan seldom even goes to church.
Science has pushed back the shadows of the unknown, and medicine the darkness of death and disease. Technology has provided us with undreamed of abundance, and insurance with guarantees against most any misfortune. As a result, while most people today continue to believe in the existence of God, many no longer feel any need for God.
God exists, but does not matter. Like a modern European monarch, God is a benevolent figurehead paraded out for ceremonial occasions, like weddings and wakes. Those who feel no need for God, feel no need for religion. They are content to know that a good church, like a good hospital, is around should they want it, but glad not to need either one very often.
Yet many of the same people who do not feel the need for God, do feel vaguely lonely, disconnected, unfulfilled, pressured and confused by the difficult choices confronting them in today's world. They try to escape their uneasiness by joining in the modern quest for possessions, pleasure, power, or prestige. They do not see the connection between their lack of inner peace and the lack of God in their lives. They do not understand St. Augustine's prayer: "You have made our hearts for You, O God, and they are restless until they rest in You."
At the root of this loss of a felt need for God, is the loss of a sense of awe. Our industrialized urban-suburban mode of living alienates us from the wonder of creation, from the Presence of a Power greater than ourselves. We can still be humbled by the raging of a storm, the fierceness of a tiger, the majesty of a mountain, or the birthing of a baby. But we have filled our everyday lives with so many noisy distractions that we have become enamored with our own power and success.
Only by seeing past false quests and distractions can the deepest yearnings of our hearts be satisfied. For a time we may deceive ourselves into believing that we are self-sufficient, secure in our ability to control things. But sooner or later we learn that the things that matter most in life are beyond our control. Faced with the limits of our own power, we need to turn to a Power greater than ourselves. We need God.
Acknowledging the importance of God in our lives is something we choose. We choose to lean on God, we choose to trust that there is a wise, loving Hand at work even in the darkest moments of our lives, we choose to live our lives God's way. As we make this choice, God offers us what we need. We are blessed with light, strength, and peace unavailable to others.
We need and receive God's light in order to break down the class barriers and the competitive pressures that isolate us, so that we can gather together as church. God enlightens us to see the specialness in ourselves, and in each other, and so find meaning in our lives.
We need and receive God's strength to sustain us in our weariness. Perhaps our clearest experience of God's Presence in our lives is when we come to the end of our strength and turn to God. Miraculously, God lifts us up and carries us on. God's people are strengthened with a perseverance and commitment rarely seen in others.
We need God in order to enjoy the peace that comes from knowing that we are loved unconditionally, that we can be forgiven, and our inner wounds healed. Our hope is in God rather than ourselves, so we have the peace of knowing that "all things are possible with God" (Mt 19:26), that God can resolve the problems we can't.
We need God, as well, in order to be able to simply say "Thank you." Those without God in their lives have no one to thank when their hearts are overflowing with gratitude--for justice finally achieved, for the splendor of creation, or for the feeling of wellness after a distressing illness. We need God to Whom we can direct our prayers of thanksgiving.
Who needs God? Know it or not, we all do.
In the physical realm, our ancestors maintained their bodies through hard physical work. Now we have come to see ourselves not only as beneficiaries of our modern, comfortable lifestyles, but as victims, who need to diet, jog, or work out, if we are to maintain our bodies. So too in the spiritual realm, our ancestors enjoyed a communion with creation and the Creator that is less accessible to us today. We need to find ways to nourish and exercise our spirits in order to maintain our capacity for awe, for the reverence that comes from recognizing God's greatness and our limitations. "Reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom" (Ps 111:10), wisdom for enjoying "the good life."
Ronald Stanley, O.P.
[Many of the ideas presented here are taken from Harold Kushner's Who Needs God.]
For additional articles relatedto this topic see:
I NEED TO PRAY
TRUE HUMILITY
THEN CAME THE STORM
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