One of the central functions of the dark night, he says (referring to St. John of the Cross), is to convince those who grasp after things that God cannot be grasped. In John’s native Spanish, his word for God is ‘nada’. God is no-thing. God is not a thing. And since God is not a thing, God cannot be held on to. God can only be encountered as that which eclipses the reality of all other things.
Contemporary Reading
Learning To Walk In The Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor
Jesus said, “If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you.
Non-Canonical Gospel of Thomas
English translation by Dr. Thomas Lambdin / Verse 3 Section A
Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”
Scripture Reading 1
Luke 17:20-21 (CEB)
God made the nations so they would seek him, perhaps even reach out to him and find him. In fact, God isn’t far away from any of us. In God we live, move, and exist. As some of your own poets said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Scripture Reading 2
Acts 17:27-28 (CEB)
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