Armel R.

Collantes, SMM

“A God Who Is Truly One With Us”

(A Reflection on The Image of God)

I was raised by my parents with fear for the Lord. My parents are not practicing
Catholics. I could remember that for a month we only have attended the Sunday Mass
at least once a month. Being the only child, my parents were very hard on me. They
have always told me when I was a child that I should always be a good child because
the Lord punishes every naughty and disobedient children. Not only that God
punishes me whenever I am very annoying to them but all the more my father was the
very first to beat me. As I grew up and with all the experiences I have had, my image
of becomes more personal as I have now encounters with God in my day to day life. I
see now the image of God who walks with us and is one with us.

This image of God who is one with us and who journeys with us are the images
which I have also seen in the movie we have just watched in our class. The Movie,
”Oh God” actually portrays images of God that an audience may have seen a kind of
image of God that best relates his/her own image of God. I was fascinated and then
moved by the message of the movie. In our time today, many people tend to forget or
just neglect that God is present and is always one with us. May we have been so
bombarded with so many of this world’s tempest ideas and ideologies that may
prevent us from awareness of God in our lives, but if we try to be sensitive with what
is going on inside us, in the core of our being, I believe that even a little or more
space in us would tell us of our longing of God within us. The movie suggests us to
widen our awareness that God is alive if we only understand our essence as human
beings having been created by God from the beginning of time. We do not have to
search for God elsewhere but to see Him in us, in the face of our fellow humans, our
brothers and sisters in this world. We can always feel the loving presence of God in
our lives but sometimes we have just been so busy with so many things that is why
we failed to recognize Him most of the times. God reveals Himself to us everyday
and He communicates to us not His own heavenly language but He communicates in
every ways that we can understand and grasp. I have seen this in the character of
Gerry Landers in the movie which has awaken in me a sensitivity and trust towards
God’s call for me to be His servant in my chosen family, my Montfortian family. At
first Gerry Landers was hesitant and seemed to be unbelieving that God is calling
him. He could not believe either that God has taken a form of a typical elder person
who walks with him, drives the car with him, dine with him and lastly during the
court trial, stands for him in defending him to everyone that God exists and we don’t
have to grasp everything why but in our lives, we have already seen Him and we just
need to recognize Him in our lives to have a deeper relationship with God. Lastly I
was caught into the feeling of awe by this line of the God in the movie whom before
He bid farewell to Gerry: “You talk, I’ll listen” and until now His image at my heart
keeps on flashing back and forth in my mind and in my heart. Indeed, God is with us
and is one with in our daily life’s journey in this world and we just have to talk to
Him and rest assured that He lovingly listens to us.