God’s address

God cannot be found at a particular address, nor can he be confined to our rules and customs. How does this belief shape our attitude to the world and other people? Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from mass.

Readings for Tuesday of the 5th week of Ordinary Time (memorial of St Scholastica) can be found here.

One of the first things any child learns, after perhaps their own name and those of their family, is their address. Throughout our life, we may have moved many times, or always lived in the same house, but our address is something we know instinctively. In this digital age we have become familiar with entering our postcode then selecting our house name or number from the drop-down menu. Even the grandest in the land has an address; many are the people who have written excitedly to the Queen or King at Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA, and then got an answer – even if it is from a lady-in-waiting or secretary.

If someone asked, “what is God’s address”, we might laugh at the silliness of the question. God does not have a house, we might reply; he is everywhere. King Solomon acknowledges this in his prayer at the dedication of the Temple, that mighty house which was seen as God’s dwelling place. “Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built”, he prays. 

We might know this truth deep down, but there has always been a human tendency to try and confine God, to put him in a box or compartment, separated from the world at large. In many ways, this is what the Pharisees in Jesus’ day had done. For them, God’s address was in the many rules and regulations, customs and traditions that they observed. There was a divide between God’s realm – that which was ritually pure, or clean – and the rest of the world, which was unclean. Hence the dispute about Jesus’ disciples washing their hands. It wasn’t about hygiene but washing off the impurities of the world. 

This attitude can affect Christians. Some talk about “bringing God into this community”, as though he wasn’t already there, in the lives of ordinary people who may or may not be religious. If God truly is everywhere, then such distinctions don’t make sense. Far better to adopt Rowan Williams’ attitude to Christian living: find out what God is already doing, and simply join in.

Mass today is in St Mary’s at 6.30pm

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our Day By Day pages.