4th Sunday in 2007. year C
I think many of us attribute characteristics to God
that are unworthy of him. A not untypical image of him is
that of a moody old man who will make us regret the times when we failed to please him. And what pleases him
is seeing us do everything strictly according to the rules
even if it makes us miserable.
Another image of him is that he may stand one day
like a nazi officer on the platform at Auschwitz
pointing left and right sending the people who approach him
to everlasting life or everlasting torment.
And while we can’t help believing
that God may indeed is this horrible
we also try to believe unsuccessfully that he is good,
that he loves us and that he is love itself.
But the contradictions are too great
and we are not sure what to think of God.
In today’s reading St. Paul helps us to see God more clearly.
He gives us a specification of love,
and if we accept that God is love
than we have here a true description of him.
I shall re-read the middle part of the second reading
substituting God for love.
God is always patient, God is always kind.
God is never jealous.
God is never boastful, God is never conceited.
God is never rude or selfish.
God does not take offence, God is not resentful.
God takes no pleasure in people’s sin or failure.
God delights in the truth.
God is always ready to excuse and to hope.
God endures whatever comes from people.
God never comes to an end.