Seeing God

Our Lord brought Peter and James and John up to the top of mountain, alone. And there, suddenly, they saw God. It was the same man with whom they had been living for the last three years - the same body, the same face. But, suddenly, in this man, they saw the beauty and power of God!

The Franciscans, in Los Angeles, produced at least three beautiful 30-second TV spots, on seeing God. They were played like commercials, in all the big television networks in the United States.

The first to appear was a white Anglo-Saxon American woman going into a church, climbing the white stone stairs to the little plaza in front of the church. She is well-dressed. On the plaza she is a little distracted, and almost bumps into a woman with her child. She looks at the face of the woman, and the woman is Japanese! The woman bows, and apologizes, and moves on.

Looking after her, the American woman almost bumps into another pair - a man and his wife. She looks at them and they were black! The black man smiles, and apologizes, and moves on, with his wife. The American lady gets to the church door, and the elaborate brass handle of the door is being polished by an Italian laborer. He smiles, apologizes, and moves away to allow her to enter.

There are no words. The whole episode is silent. But that acting is superb! The rich American lady obviously feels superior to the Japanese, to the blacks, and to the Italian. She puts her hand on the handle of the church door, and opens it.

Then comes the only words in the whole 30 seconds. It is a voice-over. It is a man’s voice - strong, clear, but very gentle. He says: “If you don’t find God here. . . . .” and the camera gives you a close-up of the Japanese mother and child, of the black man and wife, and of the Italian laborer. The voice continues: “. . . it is not likely that you will find Him in there.” And the woman goes into the church.

The second is called “Incarnation”. The “o” in the title turns into the womb of a woman, with a baby in her womb. A male voice-over says: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us.”

Then, in 20 seconds, they show you about 60 faces—young, old, laughing, crying, rich and poor, the strong and the dying — all kinds of people. It is high tech, and very American. Over the last vision of faces, the voice comes back again: “Behold! I am with you all days - even to the end of the world!”

The message is crystal-clear - you see God in people! God is with us - in people!

The third telespot starts with an American party, where the sophisticated party-goers are giving their views on God: “God is continuity of shooting-out. . . ” “God is nature.”. . . . “God is the most!”

The voice-over says: “Many people talk about God. But would we know Him if we saw Him?” Then they show you the beggar, sitting disconsolate on the park bench; the mother with her starving child, who is all skin and bones; the street vendor, trying to sell apples; a swarthy bearded Arabian holding a tiny white baby in his arms, and smiling at the baby.

Then the voice -over says: ‘So long as you do it to the least of these, my little ones, you do it to Me!”

Father Miles O’Brien Riley, a television expert from San Francisco, was conducting a seminar for the Bishops of the Philippines. He was trying to teach them how to handle an ambush interview, on television. He did this by ambushing the Bishops with a camera and sound equipment. He was asking very sensitive questions, which the Bishop had to answer spontaneously, with no preparation.

He asked Bishop Benny Tudtud, of Marawi: “When was the last time that you met God?” Benny smiled, and said very quietly, simply at once: “Well . . . . I am meeting God in you, right now!”

Benny understood the Gospel. He was a saint. He was killed in a plane crash, soon after that.

Seeing God in people is absolutely necessary for the religious - for the priest, the Brother, the Nun. If a nun does not hear God in the voice of her Superior, if she sulks and says: “I cannot stand the whims of that woman!” she is in a bad way. She is probably on the way out of her religious congregation.

But everyone needs this! The wife must see God in her husband, with all his faults and failures, and mistakes even with his sins. A man must realize that when he is kissing his wife, he is kissing God. If he kisses another woman, he is Judas in the Garden, betraying the Son of Man with a kiss. God is in your children, in your maid, in your driver. You must see God - and this is very hard - even in your Boss.

You have to die. That moment will come. And when you stand all alone before that great white throne, waiting to be judged, God will say to you: “So long as you have done it to the least of these, my little ones - you have done it to me!”