Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. – John 14:23
Where does God live? (I’ll give you a hint: there’s more than one answer to this.) One answer is that He lives in heaven where He is the light and temple of the City of God: “I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22-23).
Another answer is that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. He is therefore present—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—in the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacles of every Catholic church around the world: “In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us” (CCC 1380). In this way, Jesus lives in our Church. He also dwells within the community of the Church, the Body of Christ: “you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God” (Ephesians 2:19-22).
A third answer is that God lives deep within our hearts. St. Paul taught that “God’s Spirit dwells in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16). Likewise, St. Peter taught that through Christ we are “participants of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Through the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in a mysterious way, we can become like God (see CCC 460).
The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”: “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”
CCC 460
We have the ability to be “partakers of the divine nature” through love made manifest in our obedience to God: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth…You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you” (John 14:15-17).
St. John Henry Newman correlated faith with obedience. For him they were two sides of the same coin: “…to have a habit of faith, and to be obedience, are one and the same general character of mind;—viewed as sitting at Jesus’ feet it is called faith; viewed as running to do His will, it is called obedience” (Sermon 6: “Faith and Obedience”).
This is how we demonstrate our love for God: by being obedient to His commandments. This is how He lives deep within us: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:9-10).
Jesus, live in my heart always. Help me find one specific way to grow in obedience to Your will this week.