Soul Food December 2006

In the life of faith there are always two movements: God in search of us and we in search of God. The poet Francis Thompson described God’s attempts to reach us in terms of his being the “Hound of Heaven.” Thompson said he felt God coming after him and yearning to give him love. But the poet was not ready:

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
of my own mind … I hid from him.

At the same time, God has stamped in our souls a longing for himself. We are born with a longing for the divine that cannot be satisfied by anyone or anything short of God. We are created to be seekers for the absolute love, which is God. Thompson not only experienced God as the hound pursuing him; he also felt his own hunger and thirst for God. One day he stopped running, turned, and rushed toward God:

Naked, I wait Thy love’s uplifted stroke!
My harness, piece by piece, Thou hast hewn from me,…
I am defenseless, utterly.
And God, the other seeker, in this spiritual drama says:
“Rise, clasp my hand, and come!”

The Holy Spirit presided over this spiritual adventure. It is the mission of the Spirit to help us draw near to God. When the Holy Spirit is present and active in our lives, we can have an experience of his presence.

 --United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, pp. 109-110