GOD TURNS THE TABLES

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THE GOD OF VENGEANCE STRIKES!

I asked my Religion students to write a brief essay this week on how they see the notion of "God" fitting into the present pandemic. I was disappointed when I saw how the kids were explaining the pandemic as being God's way of punishing us for not obeying the divine will.

 All semester I've been pointing out to them that the God whom Jesus came to reveal to us is infinitely loving, and, unlike us humans, doesn't have the urge for revenge or payback. This latter idea of God definitely exists in the Bible, but is not the God whom Jesus called his "abba," his loving Father. The view of the Almighty as angry and vengeful goes contrary to the fundamental direction of the Bible, which is leading us in the direction of the fullness of God's self-revelation in the end-time, when everything will be permeated with God's boundless love.

During the present crisis it's particularly important to let go of the horrible idea of God as angry, vengeful, looking to punish all of us (including babies!). This is the "God" that atheists say doesn't exist. ("There is no God and I hate him.") Let's agree with them and move on to the God that Jesus revealed to us, the God who is pure love. Of course, the concept of God is infinitely complex, so we can't just dismiss metaphors such as "God as earthquake" or "God helps us grow by means of adversity."

I just noticed that the question of suffering and the problem of evil have been favorite topics in this blog for years. In the left hand column on this screen you can scroll down to "labels" that link you to posts about "God and Suffering," and "The mystery of Suffering."

SURPRISE! GOD TURNS THE TABLES

The following is an insightful essay that shows God turning the tables: Instead of our asking the Lord to forgive us (i.e. "We repent. So please call off your pandemic."), the Lord asks us to forgive Him!

 There is at this moment, in the back of some forsaken church, or even ordinary house, or at the turning of a deserted path, a poor man who joins his hands and from the depth of his misery, without very well knowing what he is saying, or without saying anything, thanks the good Lord for having made him free, for having made him capable of loving. 

There is somewhere else, I do not know where, a mother who hides her face for the last time in the hollow of a little breast which will beat no more, a mother next to her dead child who offers to God the groan of an exhausted resignation, as if the Voice which has thrown the suns into space as a hand throws grain, the Voice which makes the worlds tremble, had just murmured gently into her ear, “Pardon me. One day you will know, you will understand, you will thank me. But right now, what I am looking for from you is your pardon. Pardon.” 

These -- this harassed woman, this poor man -- are at the heart of the mystery, at the heart of universal creation and in the very secret of God. What can I say of it? Language is at the service of intelligence. And what these people have understood, they have understood by a faculty superior to intelligence although not in the least in contradiction with it -- or rather, by a profound and irresistible movement of the soul which engaged all the faculties at once, which engaged to the depth their entire nature… 

Yes, at the moment that this man, this woman, accepted their destiny, accepted themselves, humbly -- the mystery of creation was being accomplished in them.  While they were thus, without knowing it, running the entire risk of their human conduct, they were realizing themselves fully in the charity of Christ, becoming themselves, according to the words of St. Paul, other Christs. In short, they were saints.                                                                                - Charles Peguy (1873-1914)

This God who identifies with our suffering and apologizes because we cannot understand how it fits into the Divine Plan of Love for the world -- this sounds much more like the God that Jesus came to reveal to us. This is the God of Love, but also the God of Surprises and, unfortunately for us, the God of Mystery. I say let's accept the apology gracefully and keep on letting God love us in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. And, of course, try to pass on that love to the people we are living with.

Maybe next time I'll explore the idea of how our loving God uses adversity to strengthen us and help us grow in love for one another. Meanwhile, as we get closer to Holy Week, let us ask the Lord to help us to imitate his example on the cross by growing in self-giving love.