Our reception of the Sacraments pertains to the awareness of the Divine inside of us. The Triune God staying within us becomes a faith reality as we receive the sacrament of the Holy Communion. Faith reality means we believe that God actually dwells in our human nature. Thus, after receiving Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, we worship Him who dwells in the center of our being as we spend a few moments of silence.
God inside out
Because the Omnipresent God decided to become the staple Bread of Life, we silently pray in this manner: “Jesus, my Savior, stay within thy soul. I love and glorify You who are within me. Never abandon me and do not leave me orphaned, my Lord.”
The bigness of the Creator has chosen to stay inside the smallness of the created being.
On the other hand, the practice of the presence of God pertains to the awareness of the Divine outside of us. It signifies our awareness of God’s company and attendance in all places, and at all times.
Isn’t our human experience that we put our best foot forward before our parents, superiors, officers-in-charge, or any individual, for that matter, whom we revere and place in high esteem? Accordingly, due to the awareness of God’s ever present within and outside of us, should we not strive to please Him all the more, with our good words and action?
Should we not show more decorum, good behavior, fair judgment, and gentle manners before the God who is our Father, who dearly loves us? Should we not behave as we claim to be His sons and daughters, that is, as God’s children?
Then we perform well
When we practice living in the presence of God every hour of the day, in fact, every minute of the day, wonderful things can happen to us. In the first place, that practice is an effective aid to enhance our spiritual life. That practice requires from us to do all things with the greatest possible perfection, which means, we act and perform without waste, neither half-baked nor mediocre. In other words, only the best is acceptable to God.
For instance, if you ever decide to offer your office work as an acceptable sacrifice to God, at the end of the day you must be able to say, “I’ve done my best today. I’ve offered nothing less than perfect because I sincerely believe God deserves my best.”
In Brunei, two laborers were working in the field in the middle of a sunny day, one is a Christian and the other a non-Christian. The taskmaster who was supervising them got summoned by the Sultan. When he left, the non-Christian prodded his companion, saying: “Ah, it is time to relax because the master has gone. When the cat is away, the mouse will play.”
The Christian replied with all seriousness: “No, we must work hard just the same. Although our earthly master is off to see the Sultan, the heavenly Master is forever watching us. We are expected to be just and proper at all times.”
Then we shall attempt to avoid sin
The practice of the presence of God is another way of avoiding sin, even the insignificant yet deliberate ones. God sees not only our external actions but also our interior motives and intentions (Jer. 17:10, Rev. 2:23). In the Book of Genesis, God said to Abraham: “Walk in my presence and be blameless” (Gen. 17:1). Absolutely nothing escapes His loving gaze for all things are open and naked before His very eyes. Some people may hypocritically appear good and religious before others, but surely, God knows the inner chamber of their hearts.
Modesty, chastity, and good sense of shame
Virtues related to the human body, they are gone. And pornography trumpets itself in the open and in public, in a private flat screen as well as in the cyberspace.
If only Christians practice to live always in God’s presence, then we all will enveloped with good sense of shame and observe modesty in our deportment at all times. Whether alone or with others, the constant awareness of the Divine Omnipresence can assist our human weakness and help us maintain a sense of Christian dignity in all our actions. Even in our private dressing room, far from the gaze of mortal eyes, deep inside we believe we are never alone.
God sees us and we see Him everywhere
The practice of the presence of God is a consequence of being prayerful. It becomes second nature for a man or woman of prayer to live always in the presence of God. He or she who practices interior recollection and meditative silence never fails to see God in all His creatures. To them, God is in the rising, morning sun or in the beautiful orchid delicately perched against the garden wall. God, in a very special way, is in the people we meet.
External representations like the crucifix or the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus will easily remind the prayerful soul of God, our Father, in heaven — seemingly far, yet, so near and ever present. From the Divine Loving Omnipresence, there is no escape! For the best place to be for the Christian disciple is to be in Christ: to live in Christ so that Christ may live in us.
