GETTING GOD RIGHT

.

Do you remember back in the days when you would hear people say things like "After this covid19 is over and we get back to normal...." or "I'll be glad when this is all finished and we can move on." I'm hearing expressions like that less and less often lately. Maybe people are beginning to realize that in many areas things are never going to simply return to the way they were before the pandemic. You can name more examples of these deep changes than I can.

 On Monday July 6 St. Benedict's Prep Division will begin its summer session with all classes being taught on line. Looking down the road to September, try to picture twenty-four kids in a single classroom all keeping six feet apart. (You're right: It can't be done.)  We along with everyone else are trying to imagine creative new ways of doing school. We have to come up with whole new ways of thinking about teachers, classrooms, student interaction and so on.

Even if and when there is a vaccine for covid19, the world will already be a different place in many ways, and our decisions are going to be based on factors that most of us haven't thought of yet.

THE RIGHT GOD

In the midst of all this flux and uncertainty we naturally long for some solid ground on which to stand. Many of us turn, of course, to our faith in God, a loving God who is above all of creation, who is infinite, beyond the boundaries of time and space.

But this means that it's more important than ever that we Christians begin the with the concept of God revealed to us by Jesus Christ rather than one based on human needs, emotions or logical theories. If you go to the column of "labels"  to the left of this screen and click on "God and Suffering" you'll get a good sense of what I mean by our faulty ideas about God. (The label list shows how preoccupied I've become with fighting against these terrible misunderstandings about God.) I won't repeat the ideas expressed in the most recent posts listed there, but would like to offer an idea or two.

Our understanding (or misunderstanding) of the true meaning of the crucifixion and death of Jesus will make all the difference in how we experience the sufferings caused by the present pandemic. Here is a quotation from Richard Rohr's book "The Universal Christ," page 143:

[Then] in the eleventh century Anselm of Canterbury wrote a paper called Cur Deus Homo? or "Why Did God Become A Human?" which, unfortunately, might just be the most successful piece of theology ever written. Thinking he could solve the problem of sin inside of the medieval code of feudal honor and shame, Anselm said, in effect, "Yes, a price did need to be paid to restore God's honor, and it needed to be paid to God the Father -- by one who was equally divine." Apparently, Anselm never thought out the disastrous implications of his theory, especially for people who were

Anselm of Canterbury
 (1033 - 1109)

already afraid or resentful of God. In authoritarian and patriarchal cultures, most people were fully programmed to think this way -- working to appease an authority figure who was angry, punitive, and even violent in his reactions. Many still operate this way, especially if they had an angry or abusive parent. People respond to this kind of God because it fits their own story line.

Unfortunately, for a simple but devastating reason, this understanding also nullifies any in-depth spiritual journey Why would you love or trust or desire to be with such a God? 

Over the next few centuries, Anselm's honor- and shame-based way of thinking came to be accepted among Christians. 143

If this is the God that we're dealing with, then the pandemic is easily understood, right? But who would ever want to spend all eternity in the presence of such an angry, self-centered, pitiless God? Not me, thanks!

Next time I'll remind us of Jesus' revelation about the God who is nothing but Love - someone you would look forward to being with for all eternity.