Jordan Paul

To move into heaven, or the divine manner of existence, is not to move to another place, but to that arena of existence that stands outside of space. Paul Tillich refers to God’s Überraumlichkeit (over-spacedness), and he insists that this transcendence to any particular space implies the capacity to be present to every space. This is what we mean when we say that God is “everywhere” or ubiquitous.
—Bishop Robert Barron

Friends,

In the same way that God is everywhere, the reading from St. Luke’s Gospel today reminds us that God calls us to be everywhere as well. We are, as St. Matthew says, to make disciples of all nations.

Many of the ways that Christians do this externally are familiar—we operate food pantries, go on mission trips, offer prayers for the world, offer public worship services, and more. In participating in these actions, Christians often pay less attention to how we maintain this discipleship internally.

Whether it is out of unbelief, politeness, or a generalized fear of being too “Roman,” Episcopalians do not talk about Satan enough. Perhaps out of a fear of overattributing things to the diabolical we have erred on the side of under attributing. Nevertheless, we should still spend some time thinking about it.

The decline of Christianity here and the West more broadly has not necessarily led to the decline of religion. From new religious movements to more banal cults à la SoulCycle to the proliferation of casual witchcraft to the elevation of politics to our primary concern, we are awash in religious thinking. This doesn’t just affect non-Christians, though.

All sorts of things draw our attention from God—and we should ask ourselves how it got to this point.

Maybe it is the special workout class that we go to on a Sunday morning instead of Mass (just this once!). Maybe it is a casual engagement with the tarot reader at a street fair. Maybe it is a failure to prioritize faith when everything else is crashing down around us.

In the words of the baptism liturgy, it really is as easy as repenting and returning to the Lord. Living out our sacramental life really is the best inoculation against the things that wish to draw us from God.

And going forward, to paraphrase a different famous Catholic, perhaps it is the Christian duty to stand athwart the culture, yelling “stop!”

In Christ,

—Jordan