Click here to read the daily readings from the USCCB website.
I’ve talked about the beauty and importance of creation before. There have been many heresies over the years claiming that the created world is bad and that we need to reject it in its entirety in order to truly find the Kingdom of God. What a disheartening heresy that is. God created the world out of love for us and to reveal Himself to us. That’s why He said that it was good. We simply need to be mindful not to love to gift more than we love the Giver.
If God created the world to show us that He loves us, then His fingerprints can be found everywhere. Wherever you find pure truth, goodness, and beauty, there is God. If you’ve read this blog before, you know that God has consistently revealed Himself to me through coffee. To many others He’s found in nature, the warmth of a baby sleeping in your arms, the masterpieces of Mozart, the Basilicas of Rome, grandma’s homemade pie (the special ingredient is love and God is love, right?). God wants to be found.
There’s another old heresy called Marcionism (circa 144 AD) that rejects the idea that the God of Jesus is the God of the Old Testament (i.e. the law and the prophets that Jesus mentions in today’s Gospel). As I understand it, the Marcionites couldn’t come to terms with the seeming difference between the fire-and-brimstone God of the Jews and the all-loving Father that Jesus preached about. And yet listen to Jesus’s words in Matthew’s Gospel:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (emphasis mine).
When we read the Old Testament through the lens of Christ, we can begin to see what Marcion and his misguided disciples missed. If we’re ever led to believe that God is anything but a loving Father who wants the best for us, we are being lied to. The God of the Old Testament is the same all-loving Father that Jesus preached. If you ever doubt that, take a look at Isaiah 43:1-7, Psalm 139, the entire book of Songs. God is deeply and irrevocably in love with you. God is a good parent, and any good parent knows that sometimes what their child needs is a firm hand. That’s why “the fear of God” exists. I firmly believe that all children should have a healthy fear of their parents, not because their parent abuses or disrespects them, but because the child knows that they will get what they deserve. They’re afraid to misbehave because they know that they will be punished. They know the rules.
Ancient Israel was like a child who constantly misbehaved and so God acted like any good father would, He reprimanded them, picked them up, dusted them off, and asked them to do better next time. Not out of anger, but out of love and respect. The loving Father that Jesus reveals is the fulfillment of the God of Israel. Jesus simply reveals His face.
What is your experiences of these so-called “two sides” of God? Do you believe that God is an all-loving Father who wants what’s best for you? Or is He a hard, judgmental brute who isn’t capable of love? If it’s the latter, I want to tell you that that is not the one, true God. Take some time today to pray about who God is to you. Let Him speak His truth into your heart.
-Amanda Benner, Director of Evangelization