As I was beginning Holy Mass this morning, I became aware of an awesome thought that touched me deeply: God has no desire to be worshipped, but he is happy when we love him. He knows who he is and has no need of our assurance of who he is and all that he is. And as our internal evangelization process grows from our intimacy with Jesus, we see that same childlike attitude in Jesus; he has no need for our worship. It bothers him not in the slightest that even the apostles treat him just as if he was one of them, and others treat him worse. But, he is so thrilled when the little children climb all over him and smother him with love. “Don’t chase them away. Let them come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven, and unless you become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
This is another teaching of Jesus, which is not in the creeds or in our theological catalogues, but which we learn from our intimacy with Jesus. And it opens up our minds to an ever-expanding understanding of God, which is dynamic and alive, and so different from the lifeless theological concepts divorced from the living flesh and blood Jesus.
And the next thought that comes to mind when we realize that God doesn’t just sit on an eternal throne basking in the eternal worship of his creatures, is what then does God do? And again we find the answer in Jesus. What did Jesus do when he was with people, or with the apostles? On one occasion, he says to the apostles, “Come aside with me and let us rest awhile!” How beautiful, how casual! And when we get overworked and overwrought, things happen and we find ourselves with nothing to do, or may have been laid off from our job and we are beside ourselves with anxiety, when all it is is God knowing we need a vacation so we can recuperate and while recuperating, he whispers to us, “Come aside with me and let us rest awhile!”
A friend who lives down the street has been unreasonably overworked, to the point that it was dangerous. The other day he had an accident at work and could have lost his hand, but he didn’t but it is going to take a long time to heal. And when I was talking to him, I glibly said, “God must have known you needed a vacation.” To my surprise, he respond, “I really do need a long vacation, and now I have to take it.” It’s not too bad though, because he has his own business and his workers can do most of the work.
In heaven, God does what Jesus did, he wanders among all his family and finds his joy in sharing his presence and love in intimate conversation with all his family, as each one feels special. That is the joy of living in heaven, along with all the excitement that comes from living in a spectacular world with unlimted boundaries and undreamed of adventures with so many friends and fun-loving companions, and where we cab move from place to place, even vast distances just by willing it.
