ACC ~ Acts 17 v27

GOD ENABLES THE SEARCH. CHRYSOSTOM: “Having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him.” He means that they are not forced to go about and seek God or that God determines their seeking of God, not continuously but in “allotted periods.” With this Paul shows that even if they sought him they would not find him, although he was as conspicuous for discovery as something tangible in their midst. … “Yet he is not far from each one of us” but close to all people. What Paul means is this. Not only did he give “life and breath and everything,” but also the sum and total of everything: he led people to the knowledge of himself, giving us the means through which we can find him and understand him. But we did not wish to seek him, even though he was close at hand. “Not far,” Paul says, “from each of us.” He means that he is close to all people all over the world. What can be greater than this? HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 38.

CLOSE EVEN WHEN WE ARE FAR AWAY. AUGUSTINE: If this were spoken in a material sense, it could be understood of our material world: for in it too, so far as our body is concerned, we lie and move and are. We must take the text, then, as spoken of the mind, which is made in his image, and of a manner of being more excellent, not visible but spiritual. What is there indeed that is not “in him,” of whom holy Scripture says, “for from him and through him and in him are all things”? If in him are all things, in whom, save in him in whom they are, can the living live or the moving move? Yet all people are not with him after the manner of the saying “I am always with you.”Nor is he with all after the manner of our own saying, “the Lord be with you.” It is a person’s great misery not to be with him without whom people cannot be. Certainly, people are never without him, in whom he is; yet if a person does not remember him, does not understand him or love him, he is not with him. ON THE TRINITY 16.

GOD’S NEARNESS. ORIGEN: “You are near, Lord, and all your commandments are truth.” God says elsewhere, “I am a God who is near and not a God who is far away, says the Lord.” For the power of God is everywhere according to the word of creation and providence. Knowing this, Paul, addressing the Greeks as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, says, “We do not seek God far from us, for in him we live and move and are,” and “the Spirit of the Lord has filled the earth.”He is thus, for his part, close, but if we ourselves make no effort, though he be close, to draw near to him, we will not enjoy his nearness. For this reason, sinners are far from God: “Behold, those who distance themselves from you perish.” But the just ones strive to approach God, for he is not present to them just as a creator, but he even shares himself with them: “And Moses alone draws near to God, but the rest do not draw near.” According to the degree of will and perfection, the one who approaches God is that one about whom Paul says, “The one joined to the Lord is one spirit.” PALESTINIAN CATENA ON PSALM 118.151.

Acts