When He Calls, Will you Run Away?

Imagine if you heard the voice of God and your first reaction was to run away and hide. When Adam and Eve accepted the Devil’s invitation to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they actively chose to disobey God by their own free will, hence fracturing their relationship with God. The first sin not only damaged Adam and Eve’s relationship with God; it left them spiritually naked, no longer enjoying the original relationship given by God.  

The book of Genesis describes God’s presence in the garden through the sound of his footsteps. Though God is without human form, he makes Himself available to Adam and Eve so that they can respond to God. However, Adam and Eve’s response is not one of excited anticipation; instead, fear overtakes them to the point of attempting to hide from God. This reveals that darkness has overtaken the light they had originally received from God. Hence, Adam and Eve had chosen to run away from the light.

The following sequence in Genesis reveals the now fractured relationship between our first parents and God,

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife his themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Gen 3:8-10).

Contrary to the actions of our first parents, there are examples in sacred Scripture that reveal the opposite response when God calls his children to respond to his message. Gideon receives a message from the Angel of the Lord to deliver Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Gideon questions his ability to do so, but God reassures him. Gideon responds by preparing a meal consisting of a kid and unleavened cakes and ultimately delivers Israel from the bondage of the Midianites (Judges 6:11-35). Similarly, Samuel, who, three times, responds immediately to whom he thought was the Priest Eli when called, is told by Eli who informs him that it is the Lord, to respond to God by saying, Speak, Lord, for your servant hears (1 Sam 3:2-9).

The responses to God’s call from Adam and Eve, Gideon, and Samuel reveal different stages of man’s relationship with God. In the first example, we encounter a couple running away from God after they had rejected God’s infinite love through original sin. The second reveals the questioning of God’s perception of the individual’s ability to lead Israel out of bondage, but still answers God’s call. The third responds urgently, showing no hesitation in God’s request. All three examples reveal how God communicates to and with his children based on the disposition of the heart, mind, and soul. God calls Levi the tax collector and responds, now as Matthew, after he had most likely been exposed to the healing of the paralytic and the exorcism of the demoniacs (Mt 9:9-13).    

The temptation to run away when God calls is a very real human response because it involves an interaction between the human and the Divine that does not allow one to hide; hence, a reaction to run away. The theological virtue of faith serves as a central facet in this type of interaction because it unveils man’s true fidelity to God. The Catechism echoes this point where it describes faith as man completely submitting his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being, man gives his assent to God the revealer (CCC 143). The virtue of faith requires a submission or an assent to the will of God. This means shedding or renouncing anything or anyone that may tempt us to run away from the Lord’s call. Even Jonah, when pressed by God to evangelize the people of Nineveh, chose a boat to run away from the Lord’s command (Jonah 1:1-10).

When our Lord calls, it is because He knows that our disposition is ready to either accept or reject His request. When St. Peter denied Christ three times, our Lord presented him, at the right time, the opportunity to make amends for his denial by feeding and tending his sheep-mankind (Jn 21:15-19). Every single human being is faced with two distinct calls: to love God and neighbor as yourself. The virtue of love compels us to walk toward God and our neighbor and not reject the opportunity to love both (Jn 15:12-16). Jesus came so that we would not run away from the Father, but instead sprint to Him through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son. Eternal life is intimately associated with our willingness to suffer as Christ suffered and to love Him more than our own sins.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:1-6).