Seeking God
In the message of June 25, 2001, Our Lady says:
“… seek God through me …”
In the Book of Ecclesiastes, it is said: “However much man toils in searching, he will not understand!” (Ecclesiastes 8,17), while Jesus announces: “The one who seeks, finds!” (Matthew 7,8). In the depth of his heart, man always seeks God, but his seeking often goes astray. This is why, in his seeking, man needs a permanent help.
Seeking God, man understands that he would not seek Him, if God did not seek him first, and seek him continuously, manifesting this seeking through the history of the Chosen People, through the calls of the prophets and saints, through the apparitions of Mary… In this seeking, God was complete and thorough: he enclosed the past, present and the future all within the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Seeking God
Originally, “seeking God” or “seeking the word of God” meant to consult God, mostly through the mediation of a priest-Levite or a prophet. “The people come to me to consult God. Whenever they have a disagreement, they come to me to have them settle the matter between them and make known to them God’s decisions and regulations.” (Exodus 18,15). “Stand here by your holocaust while I go over there. Perhaps the Lord will meet me, and whatsoever are His commands, I will tell you.” (Numbers 23,3). This way of seeking God may include a risk of superstition and a desire to use God for one’s own goals. Who really seeks God has one deep desire: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life… Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks; your presence, O Lord, I seek.” (Psalm 27,4.8) “Seeking God” means also to venerate him in a right manner and to oppose oneself to the cult of false gods (Deuteronomy 4,15-31).
Refusal of false gods demands conversion: it is the permanent theme of the prophets. There is no seeking of God, if one does not seek what is right and just. Amos says: “Seek me that you may live!” (Amos 5,4s.14) Isaiah says: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near… Let the scoundrel forsake his way and the wicked man his thoughts; let him turn to the Lord for mercy; to our God who is generous in forgiving.” (Isaiah 55,6s) We have to seek God “with our whole heart and our whole soul” (Deuteronomy 4,29; Jeremiah 29,13). Jesus says the same: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” (Matthew 6,33)
True and false seeking
Even in Israel, seeking God was stained by veneration of false gods, like Baal (2 Kings 1,2), and by other distortions: seeking council from varoius visionaries, even invoking the dead (Leviticus 19,31; Deuteronomy 18,11; 1 Samuel 28,7; Isaiah 8,19). Many kept forgetting the fundamental conditions: they became a people who seeks justice but forgets what is right (cf. Isaiah 58,2). This is why Isaiah says to his people: “It is your crimes that separate you from your God” (Isaiah 59,2). The true seeking of God happens in the simplicity of the heart (Wisdom 1,1), in humility and poverty (Zephaniah 2,3; Psalm 22,27), with a broken heart and a humble spirit (Deuteronomy 3,39s). It is then that God allows Himself to be found (Jeremiah 29,14), and this is why the psalmist says: “See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts be merry!” (Psalm 69,33)
Jesus Christ, who knows the intentions of the heart, is the point of discernment between true and false seeking of God; from the moment He came into the world, seeking God and seeking Christ became one and the same. To know Jesus Christ and to gain Him (Philippians 3,8.12), Paul is ready to renounce everything, first of all his own righteousness, to allow himself to be gained by Him through faith. Seeking Christ continues after His Ascension, in “seeking what is above” (John 13,33; Colossians 3,1).
God seeks man
In seeking God, man comprehends that God sought him first (1 John 4,19), that He attracts us to Himself by His Son (John 6,44). In this initiative of the grace of God, we recognize the main theme traversing the whole Bible, is the theme of LOVE, the deepest characteristic of the heart of God. God wants to speak to the heart of men (Hosea 2,15s), and He goes Himself in search of his flock and seeks the lost sheep (Ezekiel 34,5s; 34,12.16), He loves His spouse passionately (Song of Songs 3,1-4; 5,6; 6,3).
The Son of God showed us how far this love goes: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19,10) and announces that He will take to Himself those who belong to Him, “so that where I am, you also may be” (John 14,3).
Cf: Vocabulary of Biblical Theology
