A Generous God

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9

Have you ever been in a situation when you found yourself thinking, “Wait a second… that’s not fair!” Maybe at work you and a fellow coworker did the same amount of work but when the end of the week comes he receives praise and you do not or when a coworker who did less than you and yet gets the same bonus. There are some things that just don’t seem fair, but they happen. The ways of human beings are sometimes not fair and biased and rigged. But things with God aren’t exactly “fair” either.

Perhaps you are asking, “What do you mean?” God isn’t fair. And we should be grateful for that. How often do the things that we do, the thoughts that we think, and the words that we say defile us? Think about the that unkind word we said or the last time we wronged someone, and maybe even in ways that are unspeakable, and yet we are still here, alive and breathing. When our sins merit us death, God does not take our lives; instead He forgives. How blessed are we that our God is a God that is not fair!

Because God is unfair and that His ways are above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts, we have great gift of salvation and the opportunity to experience His creation. God’s mercy is shown to all unconditionally — those who have committed numerous mortal sins, those who have committed venial sins, those who have just come out of confession. God’s love and mercy is freely given; we just need to want to receive it. God loves the murderer on death row as much as He loves us. Our human instincts might tempt us to think, “Well I go to Church every Sunday and I give to the poor, shouldn’t God love me a bit more or my chance getting into heaven higher than that inmate on death row?” The answer is no. Sometimes it may be hard to accept, but when we think about it from a different perspective — “Why does it matter? I am loved by God from all eternity and He sent His Son to die for me! So what if He loves that inmate as much? I should be happy that God is that merciful and loving!”

If we are also able to reflect upon our own choices and mistakes, we ought to be grateful and that should naturally lead us away from comparison with others in regards to our “dignity” before God. One quote from St. Augustine always humbles me and brings me to my knees, especially when I begin to feel I am better than someone else, “Man is a beggar before God.” All human beings are beggars before God — royalty, common people, everyone. Yet, God regards each one of us beggars as His beloved son and daughter. Truly, how generous is our God, and how grateful we ought to be that our God does not treat us fairly!

God of Forgiveness

First published as Be Patient With Me on March 9, 2021.

"Be patient with me." Those were the words the servant used to plead with his king when he was about to be sold along with his family and possessions in the Gospel (Mt. 18:21-35). We are told that "moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him." Compassion. Patience. Forgiveness. When the servant asked for patience, he received forgiveness.

Both the words compassion and patience find their roots in Latin meaning to "suffer." To be compassionate is to "suffer with" and to be patient is to "suffer" in some way in our own person. Someone who is compassionate is able to empathize and sympathize with others, and someone who is patient is able to recognize the shortcomings of one's self and of others and so act and make decisions with that knowledge. Forgiveness occurs when that recognition and realization propels us to reflect on how we have been shown compassion and the times when we have been treated with patience. With compassion, patience, and forgiveness the human heart is touched and obstacles removed.

The king saw how earnestly his servant begged him and perhaps felt the pain and the suffering and even the frustration and shame he must have been experiencing. Seeing that this man was sorry and wanted to do better not just for himself but for his family, the king showed mercy, was moved with compassion and bore patiently with him and forgave him of his debts. In his ignorance, the servant asked for more time so that he can repay the debt, but this debt was larger than any among he could ever earn in his lifetime. What the king gave to the servant was not patience, but forgiveness. However, when it was time for him to do the same, the forgiven servant failed to act with compassion and patience.

After being forgiven the servant himself saw someone on then streets that owed him something. But when that person pleaded with him saying, "please be patient with me," the forgiven servant ignored him and threw him in prison instead. The king found out about this and "handed him over to the torturers."

We are told that we ought to forgive others because God forgives us. Forgiveness is not just something that is received. It must be given too. When we reflect on our own lives, how often have we asked for forgiveness and it was granted to us? And, how often have others begged us for forgiveness and we have denied it? Our God and Father is the model of how we ought to forgive. When we think about all of the sins and wrongs we have committed, big or small, and reflect upon how when we sought God's forgiveness it was given to us without any conditions (other than to be sorry), shouldn't that move us to forgive others? To us it seems like sometimes certain people do not deserve our forgiveness, but forgiveness isn't given because someone deserves it. If we only gave things to people because they deserved it, where is the compassion and patience in that? We give because we do not need to. We give because our hearts move us to do so.

In the same way there is nothing we can ever do to justly earn forgiveness from God or from others. God forgives out of love, and we ought to do the same. God does not withhold His mercy from us until we have repaid everything because if that's the case, we would never be forgiven. However, we are told in today's Gospel that if we do not forgive others just as the Father forgives us, neither will we be forgiven.

Let us bear patiently with one another, treat one another with compassion, and allow God to move our hearts and turn our hearts into hearts of love so that we can give to others the gift that He so generously gives to us: forgiveness. Let us to remember that God knows all that we need and all that our hearts desire. Oftentimes we may ask for one thing, but in turn God gives us something so much better, something that goes beyond our imagining. Today let us meditate and give thanks for the forgiveness we have received and ask the Lord for the grace to forgive others as well as ask the Lord for a open heart to receive all that He wishes to give to us, even those we dare not ask.

Not My Problem!

“If I tell the wicked, ‘O wicked one, you shall surely die,’
and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt,
but I will hold you responsible for his death.”

Ezekiel 33:8

On one episode of the sitcom Seinfeld, Elaine asks her then boyfriend Puddy if he believed in God. Puddy said yes. Elaine then asked him if it was a problem that she was not religion. Puddy says, “Not for me.” “Why not?” Elaine asks. Puddy answers, “I’m not the one going to hell.” What Puddy does not understand or realize is that it is and should be a problem for him. The role of each individual within a couple is to help the other become a saint and get into heaven. “Not my problem” is not an acceptable answer; yet, how often is that the answer in our post-Christian world today. But, if we keep going in this direction, not only will those who whole-heartedly reject God go to hell, we too will go with them.

The Lord reminds Ezekiel of his role as prophet. He says that if He tells the wicked the will die because of their evilness and Ezekiel does nothing to persuade them to leave their wicked ways, the wicked will die and Ezekiel will be held responsible for their death. It is not enough for Ezekiel to believe in God and know His will; he must also work to help those around him know the will of God and the consequences of their actions.

In our world today, with Objective Truth tossed out the window, we often hear “your truth” or “my truth,” and people doing whatever their heart pleases even if it goes again natural law and the moral ethical code. We cannot simply turn a blind eye to this. For those of us who have been baptized and partake in the Divine Life of God, we have the duty and responsibility to help our brother and sisters get to heaven. We must never tire of living out of the Gospel truths and we must never say “Well, if God wants them to believe, God will do it.” Yes, God will. He sent you!

When our earthly pilgrimage is over and when we kneel before the throne of God, we have to give an account of our stewardship. We will be asked if we have done our very best to promote the sanctification of all the peoples; in other words, did we tirelessly remind everyone around of the love of God and did we inform them of the dire and eternal consequences of a life that is lived contrary to love and Truth. It is one thing for us to continually preach and live out the Gospel and others still choose to reject God, and it is another thing if we simply gave up sharing the Gospel because “they won’t listen anyways.” The Lord taught that by the former we will have lived out our baptismal calling, but the latter will be evidence that we ourselves have rejected our baptism.

So, unlike Puddy who said that it didn’t bother him that Elaine did not believe in God, it should and must bother us that our society no longer believes in God and that it has chosen to adapt a culture of death. Let us today cast off the “not my problem” mentality and renew our commitment to the love of God and promise to live out our baptismal call in building up one another, sanctifying one another so that the Kingdom of God might be realized here on earth as it is in heaven.