Very Near

 

 

Christ the King Chapel, Franciscan University of Steubenville. Lift up your eyes, through the mist! He is very near to you!

    "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

    He will not let your foot be moved, He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 

    The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

    The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and for evermore." -Psalm 121

    The Lord is very near to you.

    He has created you, fashioned you, formed you. He has given you life, and has placed you upon the Earth in His perfect plan. Since the beginning, He has made you good.

    Do not think for a moment, though, that God has simply left you on your own. He has intricately made you as He desires, but He is not distant from you. When He could have made you and abandoned you, He instead chose to be intimately close to you. 

    At every moment He is very near to you. When to our eyes He seems distant and far off, a creator with no interest in His creation, He instead is protecting you with complete, supernatural attention. God fortifies you against the waves of evil. He never ceases to be fully and sharply focused on your life, even when our own frail senses cannot fathom the muddied life around us. He is your constant defense against all attacks of the enemy who wishes to make you stray from the safe path. He will shape you into the saint you have been called to be. As He has brought you into existence in holiness, He will do all He can to lead you home in holiness.

    It is for this reason that Our Lady prays for you, Her child, whom She wishes would always receive the incredible grace of God:

    "May the God of peace sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it." -1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

    Do not lose heart-- for God's heart is very near to you! Pour yourself out into God's grace, cry out to Him in distress, exhaust yourself into trust of Him-- He will bring you to sainthood. Only live every moment in trust of His divine mercy, and by His intimate grace you will be saved-- for God is very near to you.