Meditation for December 17, The House of God

God lives in me. It is almost incredible how indifferent I can be to that! How changed my life would be if God no longer con­sented to His august and abiding presence!

On the way to Chanaan, Jacob lay down on a stone to sleep. The desert was an absolute wilderness. In a dream he saw the desert populated in a strange manner. Angels were circling be­tween God and him. Jacob awoke: "The Eternal is here! The Eternal is here! I did not suspect it. What name shall I give to this corner of the country? Is it not the House of God, the Gate of Heaven?"

Jacob awoke. Do I not continue to sleep? I am the house of God. Does that mean anything to me? I can cry out more justly than the patriarch of the desert: "The Eternal is here." It is not a dream, sacred though it might be, that discloses it to me. Divine Revelation itself assures me of it. But I live as though I sus­pected nothing of the kind. I know, and act as though I did not know. My solitude is inhabited and I persist in considering it a solitude. If I had enough faith to follow the flight of the angels to God, I would see Jacob's ladder, not ascending toward the stars, but descending to the heaven of my soul where God resides. Jacob desired a remembrance of his signal discovery. He placed the stone, which he had used as a pillow, beside the trail as a monu­ment. Posterity would remember forever.

I, too, must raise a monument in my soul, This is the House of God.

"O Eternal God, who deigns continually to inhabit my soul, be not content to abide in me, but make me dwell within my own soul. You are there. It is I who am not there. Make me as eager to come to You and remain near You as You are to come to and dwell in me."

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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)