Who is that whispering in your ear?
(01-31-2010)
Not too long ago, a couple of elderly men were somewhat serious in their complaint to me. They stated that since Vatican II sin and Satan have almost disappeared from the pulpit; “we want to hear about fire and damnation for all those bad things that people do. Yet, all the church ever talks about is love, love, and love.”
Well, I wonder why that is, I responded—with millennia of hearing about fire and damnation, Satan, the world being an evil place, what good has that produced? Even with all the threats of fire, hell and damnation, we have had the most violent heinous crimes, apartheid, holocausts, and the bloodiest of times for more than a century. What have all the eternal damnation threats proved? I wonder why we need to talk more about God’s love, the gift of forgiveness, reconciliation, and the meaning of Jesus in our lives. For what is the number one need that most people claim if not the need to be loved and feel loved?
Love: St. Paul describes so beautifully in his First Letter to the Corinthians—it has become a wedding standard. Yet, how many of us are living the kind of love Paul defines? As Jesus tells us repeatedly, to love is divine! It is God-like; love is the nature of God. It is the face, the feeling the presence of God who is in each one of us. Love is life-giving—life-sustaining. We do not reflect often enough on love! We should be examining ourselves each day on how well we have loved, or how poorly. How well have we shown the face of God’s love, reminded those around us of what God looks like, in case they have forgotten.
“Love is patient, love is kind, Love never fails, Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries,” St. Paul tells us in First Corinthians.
How often are we patient with the driver that cuts us off? How kind are we to the check-out clerk that seems to dawdle and yak on and on while we are in a hurry? How often are we rude and ignore the stranger in need, or a family member, or a parishioner? How condemning are we of others who do not follow our forms of Catholic piety?
As for brooding over injuries, we can carry them like a clenched fist all the way to the grave. How many people are paralyzed by their lack of forgiving? How many families have sisters, brothers, parents that never speak to one another yet come to receive the Lord’s love in Eucharist week after week without reconciling with one another? I’m not saying it is easy to always forgive and love. There is no love which does not take work! To love God-like, isn’t what some curl their lip at and call postVatican II feel good warm fuzzies— all fluff and lightness. It is very difficult work to love like Jesus. For often love takes care-fronting—caring enough to confront what is wrong in us or the other person in our life, and that can be risky.
As we hear in the gospel for this weekend when Jesus confronted hypocrisy, the people were outraged with him. He tried to teach them God’s truth about love and acceptance and we hear of yet another attempt to kill him. Judgment of others for personal benefit and comfort is life-numbing. Accepting condemnation as a way of life can lead to horrible self-inflicted pain.
In my years of ministry with people in jails, prisons, and ministry with people with HIV/AIDS, I have found that many of life’s difficult issues are often the result of abuse that later gets transferred into self-inflicted abuse that can often result in addictive behavior. Addiction often stems from and leads to, cycles of self-destruction for those that have turned their lives over to haunting demons of self-hatred, inner rage, and low self-esteem. People try to numb such destructive pain with chemicals, food, sex, and sadly even addictive abuse of others.
What God seems to be like to many of the people locked away, one way or another, is a God who is remote, one who tempts us with Satan whispering in our ear. They imagine a God who is dangling temptations in order to inflict punishment and horrifying judgment so he can damn us to hell for all the bad choices we have made! I always say poor God. What sad images of God. Certainly not a God I could love--—our God who sent Jesus to us—our God who died for us! Yet I would be willing to bet there are people outside of jails/prisons, or with socially stigmatized diseases and addictions who hold those same images of God.
Now I am not denying Satan at work in the world. However, we have Jesus in us and there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ, except when we choose to do evil and choose to open ourselves up to the devil at work in our world.
The image of God I try to convey comes in part from our first reading for this weekend. We hear God speak so tenderly to the prophet Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” (A great quote for the sanctity of life from conception!)
God speaks of such loving creative intimacy to Jeremiah, and to each one of us. At our baptism, our head is anointed with the oil of Chrism as the deacon or priest proclaims:
I anoint you as Christ was anointed priest, prophet, and king. A prophet is someone who speaks for another. We are called to speak for God, and about God. It is through the way we live with others that we show what God is like when we offer a sense of hope with love—it is love that God is whispering in our ear—not Satan.
Listen for God’s tempting voice to love better, Fr. Gordon
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