Immanent God

THE IMMANENT GOD

I love the song, "When Irish eyes are smiling, sure 'tis like a morn in spring. In the lilt of Irish laughter, you

can hear the angels sing", since it reminds me that only a thin veil separates our life here on earth from

that of heaven.

The Redemptionist priest, John O' Riordain tells a lovely story about an Irish parishioner whom he once visited in Drogheda. He asked if she ever felt lonely. "O, I am never alone" she replied, "I always have Himself with me and I have Mary and the Saints. I am never alone".

Whilst to the outsider she appeared to be totally alone in her house, inwardly she was very conscious of being completely surrounded by 'Himself, Mary and the Saints'. As far as she was concerned they were also living with her in her humble home.

He also recalls another story about a lady whom he visited. This time, in the middle of a conversation, she pointed to a picture of the sacred heart of Jesus hanging on the wall of her kitchen. In all seriousness she said, "I am not speaking to Him, Father, we have had row. I asked him to do something and he didn't do it so now I am just letting him cool his heels a little".

You and I may well smile at this sense of intimacy with God, Mary and the Saints but, to the Irish, God

and his Saints are very close. They are all part of the family. There is no doubt that the Irish have a strong sense of the presence of God in their lives. No wonder John Macquarrie in his book, Paths in

Spirituality, should identify 'an intense sense of presence' as being a key feature of all Celtic spirituality.

This sense of the presence can probably be traced back to their pagan past. The early Celts who lived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and parts of England including Northumbria, Cornwall and Devon between the departure of the Romans and the conquest by the Normans, were very familiar with the pagan belief of their day. It maintained that their gods lived in rivers, springs, mountains and woodland groves. It was

therefore only natural that they should stress the closeness - or to use the theological term - the

immanence of God in their prayer life.

As John Macquarrie goes on to observe, 'this presence was always mediated through some finite

this-worldly reality so that it would be difficult to imagine a spirituality more down to earth than this one. Getting up, kindling the fire, going to work, going to bed, as well as childbirth, marriage, settling into a new house, death, were all occasions for recognising the presence of God'.

Thanks to the pioneering work of Alexander Carmichael in Scotland and Douglas Hyde in Ireland, towards the end of the nineteenth century, we have recorded many of these early prayers which have been handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation.

For instance, the Irish woman would start the day by splashing her face with three palmfuls of water in the name of the Trinity and say, with each palmful:

"The palmful of God of life

The palmful of Christ of love

The palmful of the Spirit of peace

Triune

O Grace."

As the woman in the Outer Hebrides knelt on the earthen floor of her home to stir into life the fire she had banked down the night before, she would say:

"I will kindle my fire this morning

In the presence of the holy angels of heaven

God kindle thou in my heart within

A flame of love to my neighbour,

To my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all...

To the brave, to the knave, to the thrall

O Son of the loveliest Mary,

O Son of the loveliest Mary

From the lowliest that liveth

To the name that is highest of all."

Again, as the woman from the Outer Hebrides goes and makes the bed, she recites this prayer reflecting

upon the span of life:

"I make this bed

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,

In the name of the night we were conceived,

In the name of the night that we were born

In the name of the day we were baptised

In the name of each night, each day,

Each angel that is in heaven."

Before baking the bread the Irish woman would say:

"The luck that God put upon the five loaves and upon the two fishes, may he put upon this food."

And before eating the meal she would offer this Grace:

"The Lord shared the blessing of the five loaves and two fishes with the five thousand. May the blessing of him who gave us this meal be upon us and upon our sharing of this food."

Even as the Scottish woman sits down upon her stool to milk her cow, she is still conscious of sitting down in the presence of Christ as the following milking blessing reveals:

"Come Mary, and milk my cow,

Come, Bride, and encompass her,

Come, Columba thee be nigh,

And entwine thine arm around my cow.

Come, Mary Virgin, to my cow,

Come, great Bride, the beauteous,

Come, thou milkmaid of Jesus,

And place thine arms beneath my cow."

It was not just the Celtic women who had this sense of the closeness of God in every day life. The men

folk also shared the same experience. For instance, when it was time for harvest the whole family would dress in their best and go to the fields. The father would take up his sickle and face the sun, and having cut a handful of corn he would wave it round his head three times in a sunwise direction. (The sun is a reminder of the Celtic pagan past and the threefold turning a reminder of the persons of the Trinity). Then he would recite this reaping salutation which the others then followed:

"God, bless Thou thyself my reaping

Each ridge, and plain, and field,

Each sickle curved, shapely, hard,

Each ear and handful in the sheaf;

Each ear and handful in the sheaf."

There is no doubt that the Celts were very conscious of living their lives in the close presence of God. God for them was not some distant and remote person who was approached in fear and trembling and only interested in the major things of life. He was regarded very much as part of the family and as such interested in the day to day things of family life.

Yet, in spite of this intimacy with the Divine, which is still evident in many parts of Celtic Britain today, the Celts never showed familiarity. God still remained 'Almighty God' and not 'Almatey God'. He still invoked respect from his worshippers.

This sense of the nearness of God is something we seem to have lost. Our God is more often perceived as being remote and distant and not interested in the day to day life of his people upon this planet. We

have focused so much upon the transcendent God .hat we have lost the immanent God. This was

something John Robinson tried to correct with the publication of his book Honest to God in the 1960s.

Both George Herbert and Charles Wesley seem to express this Celtic spirit of intimacy with God in some of their hymns when they suggest that God is to be found in the day to day activities of life.

George Herbert writes:

"Teach me my God and King

In all things thee to see,

And what I do in anything

To do it as for thee."

And Charles Wesley in his hymn 'Forth in thy name, O Lord I go' says:

"The task your wisdom has assigned

Here let me cheerfully fulfil:

In all my works your presence find

And prove your good and perfect will."

So let us try to recapture this sense of the presence of God in our daily lives and - who knows? - we too 'may hear the angels sing'.