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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1983)
V-" PAGE 10—The Georgia Bulletin, September 1,1983 Does God Ride The No. 37 Bus? BY FATHER DAVID K. O’ROURKE, OP (In the series that begins here today we intend to talk about many ways God is present in our lives. We start with some of the most basic and common, the ordinary aspects of daily living - even on rattling buses and at crowded lunch counters.) Doug sat across from me, rumpled and paunchy in a sweat-stained suit. A middle-aged man running low on hope, he was on the verge of giving up on himself. As we talked, he put some questions to me. FOR 17 YEARS he had followed the same daily route on the same bus line. His life had developed a sameness he found terrible: a paycheck that never was enough; plans for vacations he knew he never could afford; falling — Does it make sense to think about the presence of God in our own lives, except perhaps on some extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime occasion? — Is God really present in the lives of ordinary persons? Or does he show himself only to people of unusual dedication, people like Mother Teresa and mystics in monasteries? Doug described the boredom of his commute to the accounting office of a printing plant. For 17 years he had followed the same daily route on the same bus line. Closed-in, stale air in winter, steamy in the summer, asleep nightly in front of the television on a threadbare couch he couldn’t afford to reupholster. “If there is a God,” he said, “he sure doesn’t seem to be in my life.” (NC Photo by B and W. Wilson) rattling over potholes and lurching from stop to stop. His life had developed a sameness he found terrible: a paycheck that was never enough; plans for vacations he knew he could never afford; falling asleep each night in front of the television on a threadbare couch he couldn’t afford to reupholster. “Where did I go wrong?” he asked me. “Mary and I had so much going for us. And I still love her. In fact, without her I wouldn’t make it.” His voice choked up. “Our priests talk about how great life is. And I see the pope on television. They’re all so confident. They talk about God as though they know him. “Well,” he said, starting to laugh at the very thought of it, “God doesn’t ride the No. 37 bus. And he doesn’t eat pot roast specials at a lunch counter.” Then he became more serious, more thoughtful. “If there is a God, I don’t know where he is, because he sure doesn’t seem to be in my life.” How do you answer questions like those? What do you say to a weary man whose pain is so real and who won’t accept platitudes? “I know of only one way to look at your questions that might make sense to you,” I said after a few moments’ reflection. “At least, it helps me when I’ve got questions. And that’s to draw on the church’s theological tradition.” I went on then to talk about a basic theological concept, the idea of purpose: why we do the things we do. “You ride that broken-down bus, day in and day out,” I said, “not because you love the bus or your job, but because you love Mary and the kids. And you’ve both been scrimping in order to give them a good education.” He agreed that was true. “But what does that have to do with God in my life?” he asked. “Theologians maintain,” I went on, “that directing our lives to a good goal, a good purpose, is a sign of God’s presence. The ability to do the kind of things you’re doing for your family, to want to do them in the first place, to have the courage and strength to carry on all these years — these are all gifts of God. “Furthermore, being a good husband and father is something you really believe in; they’re the most important goals in your life. And the way you take care of your family, that’s not just human kindness. That certainly looks to me like the grace of God. Anyone can be generous for a few weeks for purely human reasons. But for 17 years? That’s the grace of God. “St. Paul described the way a husband should love his wife as he loves his own body. And Christ talked about care for the least as being truly care for him. That’s how you love your family and that care is at the heart of your life,” I added. “For me that’s a sign of God’s presence in your life.” My conversation with Doug took about an hour and a half. But it hit on a basic truth of our faith. God is present in us in the most ordinary aspects of human living — encouraging us, helping us hang in there even when the hanging-in seems either impossible or meaningless. The Times When You Feel God Is Gone BY NEIL PARENT In Shusaku Endo’s masterful novel, “Silence,” Father Sebastian Rodrigues is a 17th century Portuguese priest sent to Japan to minister to the small, persecuted Christian community there. The priest eventually is captured and imprisoned. One day, he witnesses through his cell window the martyrdom of a Christian. The prisoner, a one-eyed man, is led to the center of the courtyard where he is felled with one swift blow of the sword. His body is dragged through the dirt and thrown into a grave he and other Christian prisoners dug the previous day. Endo describes Father Rodrigues’ thoughts of God following the incident: “So it has come to this ...” He shivered as he clutched the bars. “Yet his perplexity did not come from the event that had happened so suddenly. What he could not understand was the stillness of the courtyard, the voice of the cicada, the whirling wings of the flies. A man had died. Yet the outside world went on as if nothing had happened. “Could anything be more crazy? Was this martyrdom? Why are you silent? Here, the one-eyed man has died — and for you. You ought to know. Why does this stillness continue? This noonday stillness. The sound of the flies — the crazy thing, this cruel business.” Endo’s portrayal is powerful, I think, because the priest’s sense that God is silent is one that many of us have felt at one time or another. Just when we wanted God’s presence most, we felt a terrible stillness. Fortunately, such painful periods generally do not last. In time, they give way to other experiences in which God makes himself known to us — whether we were looking for him or not. Such was the case with Pete, a former convict. In a recent interview, he told of an incident which occurred in prison when two of his friends got into a raging argument and vowed to settle the score in the morning. That meant KNOW YOUR FAITH (All Articles On These Pages Copyrighted 1983 by N.C. News Service) one could die. Though he never prayed before, Pete spent the night praying to God, saying, “Hey, I’m not asking you to prove yourself; I’m asking you to save two lives.” Pete said that the next morning the two men “came out with their hands extended to one another and shook hands.” Knowing the two men as he did, Pete couldn’t believe what happened. “It was mind boggling . . .So that day I had nothing but thanks in my heart to God.” For Father Rodrigues, there was God’s silence. For Pete, God made his presence abundantly clear. Yet Christians believe God is fully present in both situations. Trappist Father Thomas Keating describes God as “the source of all reality.. .who penetrates it with his unbounded presence.” Even bleak, unbroken silence carries God’s presence. It’s natural that we want to experience God’s presence, to be reassured that he is indeed with us, caring for us. When God seems distant and silent, we feel alone and afraid, like orphans. In point of fact, it is not whether God is present to us, but how he chooses to be present. We look for God in the wide spaces as well as the nooks and crannies of our lives. But while we do the seeking, God does the finding. — For one person, God reveals himself in joy; for another, in pain and sorrow. — Some encounter God in giving; others in receiving. — For some it is the awe of a limitless, starry sky that sparks a divine encounter; for others, the encounter occurs in the inward journey of quiet meditation. Many experience God in music, art or poetry. Painter-poet Carlo Carra writes that when he is working, he senses that “his true immutable essence comes from that invisible realm that offers him an image of eternal reality.” Jesus’ words, “Seek and you shall find,” encourage us to keep searching for God and to never doubt that he is with us, even in dark, silent and troubled moments.
