By Michael Ketterhagen
“God is Spirit, and those who worship him, must worship in Spirit and Truth.” --John 4:24 (NRSV)
Ever since my college years, when I consciously strove for the truth in life and began my teaching career at Pius XI High School in Milwaukee, I looked everywhere to find truth, not just in the wisdom of my Scholastic Philosophy degree, which really was a degree in European Medieval Theology, but wherever I could find truth. I studied psychology, in particular, educational psychology, hoping to find the truth about the nature of human beings and how people learned.
Driven by my spiritual hunger, I began to examine the beliefs and principles of religious traditions different from my own Catholic Christianity. That led me to exploring the nature of the God-Man, Jesus the Christ. I knew what the Western theological world said, yet wanted to search out what Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Taoism and Buddhism understood about this man from Nazareth, who in Christianity is the second person of the Trinitarian Godhead, the Word of God, one who was “begotten, not made, one in being (consubstantial) with the Father, through him all things were made.”
I became a passionate seeker of the Truth about a person who was God and Man. According to the biblical meaning of worship, I gave my “deepest affections and highest praise to” that search for Truth. By passionately seeking the truth about Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, I was worshipping God. For Deuteronomy 6:5 states that true worship is “lov[ing] God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.” (NRSV)
I was searching with all my heart, soul, mind and strength for my understanding of the true nature of Jesus’ humanity and how I could relate to that humanity. All of my searching, just like all the searching that so many others were doing in their lives, was really worshipping God. All of us who are longing for the Truth and are searching for the Truth—about ourselves, about life, about our relationships, about what is the right thing to do during this challenging time of our human history/herstory—are in actuality searching for God. Even those who say they don’t believe in God or who are constantly trying to make sense out of their observations and scientific explorations are in reality seeking the Source of Life, namely God.
I am convinced that God enjoys every moment of our searching, like a father or
mother who enjoys their child learning how to stand up and walk, like I enjoy watching my grandchildren learn about themselves and their dreams and working hard to fulfill them. I love them for it, just like God, the Source of our life, loves us for passionately pursuing our longings.
I bow to the Divinity within you!
Comments