A Distant God Who is Near (Lk 15:3-7)

 

There is a song made popular by Bette Midler several years ago entitled, “From a Distance.”  The song is about a future world where peace and harmony rule the day.  In that world, “All have enough and no one is in need—there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease—no hungry mouths to feed.” The song further suggests that it is our responsibility to bring about this peace and harmony.  We are our own instruments of hope.

God, on the other hand, apparently watches us from a distance in our efforts to make this happen.  Perhaps he waits to see how well we perform, or even if we can transform anger and despair into hope, violence into peace.  Whether we succeed or not, the song suggests that God is a mere observer with no real connection between God and us.  God simply watches us—from a distance.

Although the song correctly points out our responsibility to work for peace and justice, to love and care for others rather than mistreat them, the song gets it wrong about God.  God is not one who watches us from a distance.  God is not a disinterested almighty power passively waiting for us to accept his offer of eternal life.  Rather, God is a seeker from the beginning.  He sought Adam and Even when they broke friendship with him.  His aim in finding them was not to punish, but to restore. 

As the parable of the lost sheep illustrates, God is always here among us, actively pursuing us, searching for us to make sure none are lost, not even one among 100.  Jesus tells this parable in response to a criticism by the Pharisees who were displeased that Jesus associated with those deemed unworthy, the sinners and tax collectors.  The parable is meant to show that God does not think in terms of worthiness.  Rather, God thinks only of finding and helping his dear ones who broke friendship with him, so that they will not miss out on his profound love and care for their wellbeing.

When we break the bonds of our friendship with God, his mercy and love for us compels him to search for us with the aim of restoring that friendship.  This is because God is always faithful, slow to anger, merciful and steadfast in his love, even when we are not (Lam 3:22-23; Ex 34:6-7).  For this reason, nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rm 8:38-39).  God is the true “hound of heaven” who loves us dearly and searches for us, and when He finds us where we are and we return to Him, He is jubilant.  There is great joy in heaven.  Who can resist a father like that?  Who can say no to his call?

The proof is Jesus himself.  Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, who came to show us who the Father is and how to find our way to the Father’s house.  God longs for and eagerly calls his children into relationship with him.  That relationship stems from and consists in love for one another, along with mercy and mutual forgiveness.  God is always calling us to be more like Christ (Rm 8:29-31).  We live in the light of Christ by imitating his love and mercy.  We then become more visible to God, and through us, he becomes visible to others. 

God helps us in many ways to answer his call, especially through his Holy Spirit.  Jesus promised to send this helper, and we can therefore place our trust in His care with confidence.  When we trust in the Holy Spirit, we have no reason to fear the outcome, for “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord” (Jer 17:7).  God loves us.  God is with us.  And when God is with us, all things are possible for us (Mt 19:26).  

A God of Our Own Choosing (Mt 6:19-23)

The story about heavenly treasures versus earthly treasures is a story about our freedom to choose and the consequences of our choice.  In his discussion with the disciples, Jesus focuses on our freedom to choose between lasting values and passing values; between substance and appearance.  Jesus makes this distinction in hopes that we will choose wisely.    

Because all choices come with consequences, Jesus adds the advice to “Store up treasures in heaven” where nothing can be lost or destroyed.  He gives this advice because he knows that earthly treasures often have strong appeal despite their passing value.  He also knows that we will reap only what we sow (Gal 6:7).  His advice, therefore, expresses his hope that we will choose heavenly treasures over earthly treasures.

Does Jesus mean that the passing values of the world really have no value at all and should be avoided altogether?  No, that position would go against our fundamental need for many worldly things to survive.  For that reason, worldly pursuits surely have a practical value worthy of careful consideration and honest reflection.  Therefore, Jesus must have something else in mind when he cautions against the pursuit of earthly values. 

He gives a hint in the way he calls attention to choosing one kind of value over the other.  Notice that he says, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”  First the attraction, then the pursuit.  In putting it this way, Jesus underscores the freedom of choice that sometimes goes beyond mere appreciation for the practical value of worldly things to the point of idolizing those things we view as important and valuable.  In other words, Jesus knows we can turn anything into a god.

The question Jesus wants us to consider for our own benefit has to do with which god we choose to pursue—the one, true God or a false god of our own making.  There is no value in pursuing a false god.  This is the whole point of the golden calf story.  Pursuing any version of the golden calf leads to greed, a lust for power, status, control, and other priorities that have no lasting or true value.  In many cases, pursuing a false god brings serious harm to our companion sojourners and goes against the true God of eternal life. 

The Pharisees made this mistake long ago.  Jesus reveals their mistake when he says, “No servant can serve two masters.  He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16:13).  Jesus meant this as a direct criticism of the Pharisees for their greed and lack of compassion for the poor.  Mammon was their god.  They loved their money and their status above all else. 

The Pharisees pursued these passing values with gusto, to their own detriment and that of the very people they were called to serve with love (Lk 6:11; 16:14).  Even today, many value status and honor over peace and justice, cruelty and hate over mercy and kindness, exploitation and manipulation over love and concern, all in devoted service to one false god or another. 

Jesus taught his disciples to live a different way, to be a different kind of person—to be loving, kind, patient, understanding, and merciful, especially toward the poor and vulnerable persons.  Doing good works for others out of love for God reflects the values we are free to pursue or not (Gal 6:9-10).  The choice is ours.  Jesus hopes we choose wisely.

 

Love Three Times (Jn 16: 12-15)

 

On this great feast of the Holy Trinity, there is a story about St. Augustine that tells us something about this mystery of our faith.  You may have heard it as well.  As the story goes, St. Augustine was walking along the beach one day, trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity—how God can be three persons in one.  As he walked along, he saw a young boy fill a seashell with water from the ocean and pour it into a small hole in the sand.  Out of curiosity, Augustine asked him what he was doing.  The boy replied, “I’m trying to fit the entire ocean into this hole.”  Augustine smiled and said, “That’s impossible. The ocean is too big for such a small hole.”  The boy looked at him and said, “And so is the mystery of God too big for your mind to fully understand.”  Then the boy vanished.

True or not, the story calls attention to the fact that, although much has been said and written about the Trinity, we know about the Trinity primarily through revelation and God’s grace. The Trinity is the foundation and central mystery of our Christian faith (CCC 232).  We first encounter this mystery most explicitly perhaps at the baptism of Jesus where God the Father testifies: “This is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17).  The Holy Spirit appears as a dove and descends on Jesus.  This is enough to convince John the Baptist that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah. 

These are personal terms—Father, Son, and Spirit—that reveal a loving intimacy between the Persons of the Trinity.  Jesus reaffirms this idea with his promise to send the Advocate as someone who will remind others and teach them.  This description of the Holy Spirit is one of a real person (Jn 14:26).  Teaching and reminding are what a real person does. 

This description the Trinity as a unity of coequal persons working together for our salvation is consistent with our understanding of the term person.  We understand person not as a “me” term, but essentially as a “we” term.  An authentic person fully exists only in relationship to others.[1]  An authentic person lives in an interpersonal, interconnected loving relationship of self-giving and receiving.

    The Apostle John expresses this idea in describing God as love itself, poured into our hearts (1 Jn 4:8; 4-16; Rm 5:5).  He means that the love in our hearts is in fact God himself.  The Triune, loving God is in us and we are in the Triune, loving God (1 Jn 4:16).  Our God-given nature, therefore, is to be a lover, to express the love in our hearts (1 Jn 5:3-5).  This is the nature of love.  Love always seeks to express itself to the one loved, and wants to be loved in return.  Then, we feel grateful.  Authentic love, in fact, is complete when it is actively given and actively received with gratitude.”[2]

This desire for reciprocal love makes us vulnerable, however, for the one we love may not love us in return.[3]  When this happens, we often feel sad, disappointed and even frustrated.  Can we say the same about the Trinity?  Does God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit feel sad and disappointed when we do not love him or his children as he has loved us?  The answer must be yes.  Why else would Jesus urge us to love one another as he has loved us.  To love others is to love God.  Jesus makes this plain when he says that whatever we do for the least of his children, we do to and for God himself (Mt 25:40).  This is how we return God’s love for us, by loving others.

Love for God and his children also includes love for his creation, the only home he created for his children on earth.  God first reveals himself to us through his creation as noted in the Book of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1; cf. CCC 47-50).  The reading from Proverbs celebrates the wisdom of God as the architect of creation.  This poem highlights the playful delight of God in carrying out his creativity, and his joy in being with humanity.  Through his creation, God reveals his desire to be involved with us by sharing his own love and goodness with us in a way that gives us life to the full.[4]

Caring for creation is how we express our gratitude for this gift from God.  Such gratitude inspired the late Pope Francis to issue his encyclical on the environment (Laudato Si).  In that encyclical, Francis claims that we have a duty to care for creation, our only home this side of eternity.  Like any home, we must provide adequate and proper care for where we live.  We live together on this planet in a kind of interconnected communion that supports and protects life itself (93; cf. Franco). 

The feast of the Holy Trinity is a reason to celebrate our commitment to caring for this communion with others and with God.  Caring for each other and God’s creation is a way to imitate the loving relationship of the Trinity.  Through his life and mission, Jesus revealed to us the person of God the Father as the eternal one who creates all things; the person of God the faithful Son as the one who brings eternal life; the person of God the loving Spirit as the ground of truth, who lives among us and empowers us to follow Jesus in bringing about the Kingdom of God.

Today on this great feast, we call upon this Triune God—Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit-Among-Us, a God who labors within us and brings us to birth.  We call upon this Triune God beyond all names and beyond all human understanding in the language of our hearts, the image of our desire, to commemorate the providence of God in our lives, and to give thanks for his benevolence. 

  We love God more than we know or can say about God.  We pray that our love will be like God’s love—creating, redeeming, renewing.  From beginning to end, we call on God in the universal language of our faith to renew us in his Spirit—in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

 

 

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[1] Challenges and Renewals, W. Norris Clarke, University of Notre Dame Press, 1966, 74-75.

[2] Person, Being, and St. Thomas, W.Norris Clarke, Communio 19: International Catholic Review (Winter 1992).

[3] Authentic Living: How to Be Real, Jeremy Sutton, Ph.D., Positive Psychology (March 2021).

[4] Jacques Maritain, Existence and the Existent. Garden City: Doubleday, 1957, 90.

The Holiness of Love and Devotion (Mt 5:27-32)

 

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Anthony of Padua.  Anthony began his monastic life as an Augustinian friar at the age of 15 with his given name Fernando.  Soon after ordination to the priesthood, he transferred to the Franciscan order.  Their custom was to have novices choose a new name as a symbol of serving God in a new way.  Fernando chose the name Anthony in honor of St. Anthony the Great.  Padua just happens to be the name of the city in Italy where he lived and worked as a Franciscan.  Anthony died near there in 1231 at the age of 35.

Despite his brief life, Anthony is known for his influential preaching, extensive knowledge of scripture, and deep devotion to the poor.  This is what motivated Pope Gregory IX to canonize him in 1232, less than a year after his death.  In 1946, Pope Pius XII proclaimed St. Anthony a Doctor of the Church, not only for his contribution to Catholic theology and doctrine, but especially because of his holiness of life.

Anthony took to heart God’s instruction to the Israelite community:  Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy (Lv 19:2;).  For this reason, holiness is everybody’s concern, everybody’s destiny, rather than something reserved to monks and the monastic way of life.[1]  Franciscans commit themselves to the way of holiness, and Anthony remained true to this commitment throughout his brief life on earth. 

In living out his commitment, Anthony followed the example of Jesus.  Through his own life and mission, Jesus shows us that being holy means living with integrity, being true to ourselves as God fashioned us and called us to be.  Jesus came to do the father’s will, and he never deviated from that purpose.  He was perfect in his resolve to carry out the will of the father as he understood it.  He applied that understanding in his life to the best of his ability, even to the point of surrendering his life for our sake.  Through his love and devotion to God, Jesus proves that he was always true to himself and true to what God called him to be.

Anthony lived by this same principle because he understood that God chose holiness of life for all of us from the very beginning (Eph 1:4).  He understood that our purpose is to live as Jesus lived in a manner consistent with the lasting values of God (1 Jn 2:5-6).  Living with such integrity is how we find true peace and lasting joy (1 Chron 29:17).  This universal call to holiness motivates Paul’s instruction to the Romans: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rm 12:2).  We live out this principle of holiness by doing ordinary things for others with extraordinary love and devotion to God.[2]          

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[1] The Universal Call to Holiness, Francois Corrignan, Indian Journal of Spirituality (6-1 1993), p.1.

[2] Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales, VIII, p. 11.