The mention of the word GOD can bring different images to our minds, images and feelings.
Sad to say, often the first feeling that arises within us is… fear.
It has been so through the history of humanity – people have been afraid of the God they worshipped.
The 1st reading of this Sunday (Isaiah 6:1-8) shows the prophet Isaiah reacting in fear to the vision he is given:
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips…
and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
In the gospel (Luke 5:1-11), we see Peter, the apostle, who “fell at Jesus’ knees and said:
“Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
How long, indeed how long, does it take us to move from this picture of a fear-inspiring God,
to the picture of God that Jesus himself gave us – that of a God of tenderness and compassion.
In the parable of the Prodigal son – which is in fact that of the Prodigal God – (Luke 15:11-32)
Jesus shows us, he literally shows us, what kind of a God his Father, and OUR Father, is:
- a God who is NOT put off by our sins, no matter how shameful, but always ready to forgive us,
- a God who is anxiously waiting for our return,
- a God who bends to lift us up,
- a God with no thought of punishment (as we so easily picture him) but only of showering on us his blessings of all kinds.
This is how God revealed himself in Jesus – nobody else would have dared to… ‘invent’ such a god…
Jesus became his incarnation, his very presence among us.
If this is not our image of God, then…
we need to abandon all other images of him and accept this ‘vision’ of him that is the true one.
Note: Another reflection on a different theme is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/5e-dimanche-de-lannee-c-2022/