Our God: A Merciful God, a Generous God, a Forgiving God

Today’s liturgy opens with the following entrance antiphon from Wis 11: 24, 25, 27:  “You are merciful to all, O Lord, and despise nothing that you have made.  You overlook people’s sins, to bring to repentance, and you spare them, for you are the Lord our God."

I was reminded that this is true for each of the campaigners and for me as well, as I am deeply troubled by what I see in the campaigns for being our next president.  I asked the Lord to open my eyes to His Way, my mind to His thoughts. He did so in the following feedback:

Dorothy Ann, I know that you are disappointed about the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, that persons would win who vilify others with words, who attempt to sway votes by publishing obscene messages about their opponents on social media, who attempt to rise up by putting others down. You are seeing humans acting badly. You are seeing ambition at its worst—the search for power and control being out of control. As I said to Samuel when the Israelites wanted a king like other nations around them:  give them what they want.   I will not usurp free will.  If acting foolishly, if making poor decisions, people will suffer the results of those decisions.

Sometimes I allow the worst to happen to teach humankind that they are not God and to each you that you are not God. I right the wrongs. I put people on the straight path when they give me a crooked one!  I am God. There is no other! And I am at work even when you do not recognize me.

Sequel to "Father Forgive them"

In today’s first reading, Hebrews  8: 6-13, St. Paul speaks about the  second covenant God made with us. St. Paul explains God’s intention:  “…. [T]his is the [second] covenant I will establish with the house of Israel…: “I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people….I will forgive their evil doing and remember their sins no more.”  As I reflected upon the reflections I wrote yesterday, I went to the Lord for feedback. This is what I heard in prayer:

Dorothy Ann, I see a terrified teenager, a distraught mother, entering an abortion clinic. Some of these women are being forced to abort their child.  These women are—many of them—confused and have been convinced that the fetus is nothing more than tissue and that discarding it, aborting it, is not killing a child or ending a life.  They truly believe there is no life there to end, anymore than when their blood flows when menstruating and they are not pregnant. These women, many of them, truly do not know that they are ending the life of a child. They believe that they are discarding tissue and tissue only. 

Judas thought he would see me walk away from danger, as I had done so many times before.  He did not perceive himself being an accomplice in my execution. In the case of an abortion, that is, in many instances,  the position of both the mother and the abortionist physician. They have no idea what they are doing  anymore than my executioners knew that they were killing the Son of God made flesh by participating in an act that would save the world.

As in today’s first reading, I say to every mother and every abortionist: “I  forgive …[your] evil doing and remember…[your] sin no more.” I say the same to you, Dorothy Ann, whenever you engage in evil doing. “I remember your sin no more.” In the words of the priest: Go and sin no more!

This night the Savior comes

What a holy night--the night in which the Savior of the world assumed human nature, born of Mary, the mother of God. God took on flesh to save us from sin. God became one of us to destroy the sinfulness of the world. As we listen to the news each evening and often are reawakened to evil at work in every nation, every continent, in all races and peoples, yes, even in the cities and towns where we live, it may be difficult to believe that Satan will ultimately be destroyed. And, then, too, we encounter our own  weaknesses in the face of temptation and over and over again know we fall short of what God asked of us in following His Way, His Truth, His life.   When, Lord, we may ask? When will the scourge of sin be destroyed, wiped off the face of this earth? When, God, when?"

Our faith tells us that our Savior has come and we are on a journey to redemption!  We are redeemed, even when we encounter sin in us.  The journey into becoming the person God calls us to become, Christ incarnated in our own flesh, is a long one. We will encounter setbacks, weaknesses that bring us to our knees in repentance, in humility, in sorrow for offending our God, offending others, letting ourselves down. We will know our sinfulness but in that experience we will also know God's forgiveness, God's holiness, God's love.  Yes, each time, so to speak, the infant Jesus is reborn in us and we take baby steps to recovering from the effects of sin in us and in our world. Believe it or not, we will eventually be totally transformed by grace in us!  Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection guarantee salvation for all believers.  And each day gives us the opportunity to know more and more of the reality that God comes to save us.

Come to the Banquet of Love and Forgiveness

Yesterday we had the beautiful reading from Isaiah 25: 6-10a, reminding us that on the “mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.  On this mountain,” Isaiah explains, “…[Yahweh] will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; …[God] will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face; the reproach of his people …[God] will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said: ‘Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!’ For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.”  Every Sunday and any day of the week when we participate in the Catholic Mass, we come to this mountain and are provided “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines,” becoming the body and blood of Christ in the transubstantiation.  We are made one with the Lord, who comes to save us, to destroy death for us, to wipe away our tears, to remove the reproach of Satan and of the law from us and from the whole earth through his death and resurrection.  

Yes, Jesus invites us to the banquet (Mt 22: 1-4).   Will we come? Will we look to the one who can save us? Are we willing to put on the wedding garment of good deeds, of honesty and integrity, of humility and repentance, of love and forgiveness of ourselves and others?

A Compassionate God, A Loving God, A Waiting God, A Grateful God

In the Gospel for today, Lk 15: 1-3, 11-32, Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son. As we reflect upon that parable, we might  pray as follows:

Jesus, I am the prodigal over and over again. Each time I turn off the path that transforms my attitudes, my thoughts, and my behaviors into those that are prompted by grace, You await my return. Each day You peer down the path I have taken that distances me from being the disciplined, loving, patient, kind, forgiving woman (man), spouse, mother/father, Sister/Priest, employee/employer, servant/recipient of service You call me to be.  You wait for me to turn around (metanoia) and recognize that I have chosen a path that alienates me from my true self, from others and from You. You wait lovingly for any sign that I have turned around and when I do You excitedly rush toward me.   You cast behind You all of my sins and totally rejoice in my return!

 Imagine Jesus hugging you, throwing a party for you, rejoicing in heaven with all of the angels and saints! Yes, Jesus truly rejoices each time you and I turn back to Him. And He waits for that, every time we stray, every time we make choices that are not in tune with His Father’s will for us.  What an awesome God, a God about whom the prophet Micah in today’s first reading says: 

Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt?  You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins (recall the time Jesus sent the demons into the herd of 2000 pigs, all of whom drown in the sea)…. (Micah 7: 14-15, 18-20).

 
This is your God, folks! And mine!