‘Where there is love. God is there.’
“Where there is friendship and peace. Where there is love. God is there.” This is my favorite line of a song often sung in Sunday Mass in the Maria Church in our neighbourhood in Tilburg. To me, this embodies the very essence of God’s message for us. Very simple, and yet somehow so difficult to live by, judging by the many man-made suffering taking place all around the world.
I want to end my book by writing my thoughts about God. Upon reflection, Chasing Windmills (my efforts at living my life based on principles) started with my search for God. It was my search for God which brought me to the Philippine revolutionary movement, when I found God among the poor and the oppressed of society; and realized that serving them, and fighting to uplift their lives is a way of serving God. It was also during my involvement in the Philippine revolutionary movement when I realized that God has always been there and still is present in my life. Even if I did not pay much attention to my relationship with God when I was in the heat of my involvement in the movement, but when Carlo and I were faced with a very difficult situation as a result of us getting out of the movement, new opportunities started to unfold. I realized then that God had never really left us. And in reflection, as I went on with my life, I realized that God was always there.
God manifests itself in your life in many unexpected ways. When I think, for example, about the circumstances around the finishing of my thesis and finally getting my Masteral diploma in Psychology, it was actually that chance encounter I had with my professor while I was doing groceries which triggered everything and put things into motion. It may be simply a case of serendipity, but to me it felt like the ‘forces of the universe’ had worked together to help me finally get my diploma.
God is for many people often equated with religion. In my case though, I have already learned to see both separately at an early age. This was especially due to my father’s influence who was very critical about the Catholic Church (I was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church), but had a great faith in God. My observations of Philippine society, in which the gap between rich and poor is so big, also contributed to this realization. It was, for example, not unusual to see rich people diligently going to church on Sundays, and even attend novenas on Fridays, but at home they don’t treat their household helpers well. Worse, they look down on and mistrust the poor. So, at an early age I already started to wonder how one could be so religious and yet don’t feel compassion for the poor. Isn’t it that God is among the poor?
When I came to the Netherlands, I learned about how the Jews were persecuted during World War II and how the Muslims are still being discriminated to this very day. And if we look into our history, we would see that many killings were done and are continued to be done in the name of God. I could just imagine how God would be shaking His head in disbelief when such things happen. We could also see to this very day how various religions exclude each other or exclude certain groups of people like the gays and lesbians. So how one could be so religious and yet exclude others? Are we not all children of God?
So in reflection, I can only conclude that God cannot be equated with Religion. I think, the many religions we have in the world are man’s efforts in trying to understand God. I believe that God expresses Himself in love. It sounds so simple, but somehow this seems to be so difficult to do, to love each other, to have compassion for the weak, to forgive each other, to let love rule our lives.
It is often said that God works in mysterious ways, and that God is way beyond us, that God is way beyond our capacity to understand Him. I tend to believe that this is true. Love, which to me is the essence of God, seems so difficult to understand and live by. That feeling we think is love, is actually just a minuscule of what love really is, of what God meant love should be.
If we take a closer look at our lives, we will see that God actually has made a lot of efforts for us to understand Him, for us to understand what really love is. For instance, I do believe that motherhood (not to say that fatherhood is not, but I can only speak for myself as a mother) is one of God’s ways to let us understand what love is really all about. I believe that God’s love for us is unconditional, just like my love for my children is unconditional. As a mother I could say that there is nothing my daughters will do that would make me love them less. And now being a Lola I could also say, deep in my heart, that there is nothing my grandchildren will do that would make me love them less. I think this is the kind of love God has for all of us, but very much bigger. I feel so blessed and thankful that God gave me this opportunity to understand His love for us by being a mother, and now also a Lola. And to make the circle complete, it was my mother who showed me and let me feel what unconditional love is all about, such that I may also give it to my own children.
Having experienced unconditional love, the biggest challenge at hand is to extend this kind of love to all of humanity. For where there is friendship and peace, where there is love, God is there.
In conclusion, since we are all children of God, there is nothing we can do that will make God love us less. For His love is unconditional, the same unconditional love mothers have for their children. So in the final analysis, I really believe that we all will go to heaven eventually, back to God’s home, when we have found love in our hearts and in the hearts of others. For God is love.