TRYING TO UNDERSTAND

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND 

Life on this earth is nothing if not complicated. Add to that, the question of where God fits in, just muddies the water more.   If we say that God is responsible for everything that happens, we then blame or thank God all the time.  If we say that God is not meddling in our lives and making things happen, then God comes across indifferent.  

The problem stems from the human race’s efforts to explain God.  For the most part, those efforts have failed miserably.  When I read Genesis for the first time as an adult, I was struck by how punitive God appears. I thought, “Wait a minute”. God created the humans, gave them a test, which they failed, so they were summarily banished from Eden and that’s why women must endure the pains of childbirth.

What?  That made no sense to me whatsoever. 

Reading the other Hebrew Scriptures didn’t help much.  God, when speaking through the prophets, said things like, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”   But, in other passages, he supposedly says, “I will visit devastation on them.”

How are we supposed to know how to reconcile those things?  Christ is the only answer.  His presence among us brought the love of God to us in a form we can understand.  His compassion for everyone, regardless of their station in life or their past, is a reflection of how God regards his people. Jesus struck down all the superstitions of his people to bring them closer to God. The Pharisees continually condemned Him for associating with sinners.  That was the tenor of the cruel and despotic rule of law.  A sinner was anyone who wasn’t perfect.  Perfection was determined by the powers that be. When someone asked whose sin was responsible for the man being born blind. Jesus answered “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.”  On the Cross, he told the thief “Today you will be with me in paradise.” He did not ask if the man was sorry for his crime, or had made restitution.  He simply, compassionately, rewarded the man for his courageous kindness in coming to His defense.   

This is the image of God we must carry with us.  Our free will and the choices we make because of it, are the cause of most suffering.  Other things are just the accidents of life.  

God is with us through it all. His love sustains us through the trials of life, but most particularly when we are tempted to doubt it.  It takes time, concentration, prayer and hope to achieve this knowledge.  It is worth the effort because of the peace it brings. 

I’ve given up trying to sort out the contradictions, because I realized I was going at it in the wrong way. I was trying to understand God when I should have been trying to understand the men who wrote the scriptures. They were only human after all. 

So I depend on this: At the Transfiguration, God said,

“This is my beloved Son. Hear him.”

Carol Lemelin OPA