When God decides we are ready, he invites us to a new level of self-knowledge. God withdraws the initial consolations of conversion and we are plunged in darkness, spiritual dryness, and confusion. We think that God has abandoned us. Because we don't enjoy the same emotional experiences as before, we think that God must have departed for the next universe and couldn't care less about us....
Instead of going away, God simply moves downstairs, so to speak, and waits for us to come and join him. Perhaps God wonders what the grumbling is all about.
What makes us think God has gone away? The divine presence can't go away. God is existence and fills everything that exists (St. Thomas Aquinas). The Gospel teaches that Christ is present in the storm, not just emerging from the storm.
