We hear this question especially when our souls are perturbed in the presence of cataclysmic misfortunes, or when we are stung by an unjust or insulting slur, or when we are harmed or injured as a result of a crime: ‘Where is God?’ Every time we find ourselves in front of evil, totally incapable and powerless to counter it or escape from it, we start thinking about God as the superpower who could rule in our favor; in such moments we come to believe that God is the almighty Lord whose commands exact obedience from all. It may very well be that such thought is only a psychological reflex, but regardless, it points directly to the reality that we are powerless, and that the most important events governing our lives have come to be as a result of a long chain of necessities and limitations–chains under the weight of which humans have always proclaimed their free will and their freedom of choice, without, of course, the slightest shame of such pride.
God is found, precisely, outside the bounds of this human consciousness, limited and misguided, in its dignity and confidence, which are anchored in evil. God cannot exist within such a restricted reality of evil. In the words of Paul the Apostle, “The Word of God cannot be chained” (2 Timothy 2.9), and His Holy Spirit acts in total freedom wherever and whenever It wishes (John 3.8).
God is the just Father, and His verdicts are true. The contrast with injustice and sin, and with all human understanding and decisions made in agreement with evil, is clearer when viewed through the sacred matrix of the Word of God and His Holy Spirit, abounding in mercy. Our Heavenly Father, our Lord, does not crush our human nature beyond recognition under the limitation of evil, nor does He extinguish the last breath of our intellect forever. On the contrary, He rushes to renovate and reform what He created into existence, on the model of His own nature. He fills our nature with His divine Word, and through the power of faith, hope, and love, He rekindles the dying embers of our faculties with the new life of His Holy Spirit.
God resides in those who need Him because His nature is Love. It is the very nature of divine Providence to heal the sick, comfort those who mourn, offer water to those who are thirsty, feed the hungry, seek out those who are lost, embrace with the hope of forgiveness those who come to Him, give existence to those who are not, and create in order to have someone to share His gifts and love.
God loved us before we were able to distinguish good from evil—and before we lost our innocence—and replenished our existence with the gift of life. Saint Gregory of Narek describes this reality in a wonderful and extraordinary way: “I call upon the fulness of your unending love towards mankind, O Savior Jesus Christ, because I was not and you created me, I did not ask and you made me, not yet given birth and you prefigured me, (…) I had not called on you, yet you took care of me, I had not lifted up my arms, and you saw me, I had not pleaded and you showed mercy, my voice not yet formed in words you heard me, not even a whimper and you noticed me (…)” (Prayer 18.1).
God’s justice does not favor the Pharisee standing before Him, loaded with gifts and sacrifices, but abounds in the tax collector who is conscious of his own emptiness (Luke 18.9–14).