Divine in the Mundane

For the most part of my life, I perform actions which are routine for me. During secondary school, a typical weekday would be to wake up, get prepared, attend classes, head back, eat, do some work, spend some time in entertainment, go for tuition, eat, attend tuition, return home afterwards and prepare for a repetition the next day.

College life was not glaringly different, albeit the absence of external lessons outside of college, and an increase of self-study and spare time. Internship was relatively similar as well – rise, head for work, come back, perform routine house activities… . And university was a build up from my previous college life, with more assignments, projects and living independently away from home.

All in all, the bulk of my days can be summed up with waking up, performing habitual activities and afterwards, sleep. In the course of life, we often take these things we come to know as routine for granted. This is only natural; we are after all, human. I will applaud anyone who would be able to sustain their enthusiasm and appreciation each day as they go about performing their routine activities (which I do not believe there is single person in the world that did/does/will do so). Yet I would also assuredly label you insane if you are to skip and dance for joy every time you walk because your two legs are functioning.

Yet God is present, not just spiritually but even physically in our daily lives. It is reflected in the Bible, how God used the ordinary and transformed it into the extraordinary. The donkey, a common beast of burden back in those days, was chosen by Jesus to be His steed as He entered Jerusalem. Bread and wine were transubstantiated into His very own Body and Blood. Through such ordinary events God reveals His divine nature to us.

Our worship is not limited to certain words and actions. God never said we can only worship Him through songs, prayer and Scripture. If we take the Catholic Mass as an example, the whole liturgy itself is a symbol and tool to be used to deepen our worship of God. From the Stations of the Cross which reminds us of the Passion our Lord has for us; to the statues of the saints and Mary as our model for living a godly life; and consuming the Bread during Holy Communion – an ordinary eating activity becoming a divine instrument that channels His grace towards us.

Often do great and brilliant people draw novel ideas and inspiration from the most ordinary events of life. Newton concluded the law of gravity through his observation of objects falling to the ground. Louis Pasteur developed his method of preserving food – pasteurisation – unsatisfied that they always simply rot away for seemingly no reason at all. Jesus Himself referred to ordinary events in life when relating His parables to the people.

Consider for example, Matthew 6:26: Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? If God is tends to such simple events as these; would He not take much more notice of us and our daily activities?

God is constantly present and wants to be with us in every instant of our lives. In retrospect, it is reasonable to conclude that He also calls us to always dwell and never leave His presence. Is it not, then, logical that He would be present – moreso – in ordinary events which make up the bulk of our lives, and not only in specific and rare moments of visions and messages?

God sees our every moment and being; He understands that we too need a physical manifestation that will reveal Himself to us and draw us ever closer to His Sacred Heart. Just as Jesus was during His time on earth with His disciples; just as the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire in the time of Moses; just as God once walked with mankind before the Fall.

We are made whole only when both our physical and spiritual portions meet and complete one another, just as faith and reason are the two wings which enables our spirits to fly (Fides et Ratio, 1998).

RFG always.