How Do You Encounter God?

Our God is a living and active God. He is not some empty idol statue in a shrine that we pray to. Our God answers prayers (even if the answer is no). God is all around us, and in everything. Through the Eucharist, we get to encounter God directly every time we take communion. Because Jesus gave his life up for us and subsequently rose from the dead, he became a living and eternal sacrifice. One that is repeated every time the host is consecrated and turns from bread into Christ's flesh.

It's what happens every time we attend mass. We come to visit Jesus in a real way, and partake in the sacrifice Jesus gave to us. During the portion of the mass called the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we unite our 'sacrifice' to that of Jesus. What that means is that as members of the church (the Body of Christ) our lives, prayers, and sufferings, are added to the sacrifice that Jesus gave by dying on the cross (CCC 1368). This is why it's said we 'participate' in the mass.

Then by eating of his flesh, and ingesting the Eucharist, we become walking, talking, temples of God. Where the consecrated hosts are stored is called the tabernacle. But since we consumed the host, we become a tabernacle. Maybe this is why no one has found the original Arc of the Covenant? Because it's no longer needed. Each one of us is the new Arc.

Then after mass has ended and we go back into the world, after having taken the Eucharist, Christ can fully begin to change us from the inside out and make us anew. He makes our lives part of his living sacrifice to God by our "spiritual transformation into the image of Christ (CCC 1109)." Which is another reason why as members of the body of the church, and as the faithful, we should act and behave in ways that are holy.

As Catholics, we don't have to question what God looks like. We know. We see him every time we go to mass.

References

Catechism of the Catholic Church. (n.d.). https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/346/.

Catechism of the Catholic Church. (n.d.-b). https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/290/.