Jun 16 Mon
How close to us is the Lord?
Saint Paul commands us to rejoice, but in the Lord, not in the world. For, you see, as Scripture says, if you choose just the pleasures of this world, you will become God’s enemy. Just as no one can serve two masters, so too no one can rejoice both in the world and in the Lord.
Let joy in the Lord win in you, and go on winning, until you do not focus only on the joy of the world. Let joy in the Lord always go on growing, and joy in the world always go on shrinking until it is reduced to nothing. I do not mean that we should not rejoice as long as we are in this world, but that even while we find ourselves still in this world, we should already be rejoicing in the Lord.
Someone may argue, “I am in the world; so obviously, if I rejoice, I rejoice where I am”. What of it?
Do you think that because you are in the world, you cannot be in the Lord? Listen to the same Apostle in the Acts of the Apostles, speaking to the Athenians, and saying about God, our Creator: In him, we live, and move, and are.
Since He is everywhere, there is not a place where He is not. Is it not precisely this that he is emphasizing to encourage us? The Lord is very near, beside you; do not be anxious about anything.
This is something tremendous, that He ascended above all the heavens but is still very near to us who dwell on earth, wherever we may be. How can this be? Who can this be that is both far away and close to us, except the One who became our close neighbor, and our brother, out of compassion?
The whole of the human race, you see, is that man who was wounded, lying in the road, left there by robbers, half dead. He was ignored by the passing priest and the Levite. But the passing Samaritan stopped by him to take care of him and help him. Likewise, when Jesus, the Immortal, the Just, was in heaven, far away from us mortals and sinners, He came down to us to become our near neighbor and make us his brothers, children of God.
He did not treat us as our sins deserved, for we are his children. How do we prove this? The only Son died for us so that He would not remain the only Child. He did not want to be alone, after dying alone. The only Son of God made us children of God. He bought himself brothers and sisters with his blood. Rejected, He accepted us; sold, He bought us back; dishonored, He honored us; killed, He gave us life.
So then, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, not in the world; that is, rejoice in faithfulness and not in immorality; rejoice in the hope of eternity and not the brief flower of vanity that soon withers. Rejoice thus, and wherever you are now, as long as you are here, the Lord is very close to you: do not be anxious about anything.
Excerpts from Saint Augustine