Speaking of God, calling on him, imagining his shape and his activities – all this is part of our efforts to come to know him. In their sophisticated language, Bible scholars speak of ‘anthropomorphism’ – in simple words it means lending to God some of our human attributes and attitudes. All through the Bible, we find such language telling us of God’s eyes, arms, ears, etc. Some texts speak of his anger, his jealousy, his tenderness, his faithfulness, his love.
We believe that God is a Spirit but this is not easy for us to understand, so we compare him to… ourselves! We even assign to him some human functions: he works, then, he needs to rest (Gn.2:1-2). The prophet Jeremiah speaks of him as a potter (Jer.18:6). Isaiah says that he plays with us as a mother with her infant (Is.66:12). Amazingly, he can regret having done something (Gn.6:6), and he is even shown as changing his mind!
The first reading of this Sunday (24th, Year C – Ex.32:7-11,13-14) describes him doing exactly that: changing his mind about the punishment he was about to bring on his people. Moses intercedes for the people of Israel and we are told that God relents and will not bring disaster on them.
We know well (or, do we?…) that God does not change his mind but… he waits patiently that we change ours!
We are the ones who need to change our minds and our lives. It is up to us to change the direction we had been following up to now – this is exactly what CONVERSION is about! This is the attitude of the ‘repentant sinner’ described in today’s gospel (Lk.15:1-32) over whom God rejoices. Yes, amazingly (in anthropological terms!) we can give joy to God.
That very joy so well described by Jesus in the parable of the father welcoming his ‘lost’ son. The son changed his mind – the father did not need to do so, he had been waiting all along, checking whether the horizon would offer him the long-awaited sight… his beloved son on the way home.
Changing our minds… taking the way home where a Father will lavish on us more than we can ever dream of – this is ‘prodigality’ in its deepest sense.