What is your image of God? How do you picture God, think of God, “see” God?
The clearest, most complete and perfect image of God is given to us by Jesus is his Parable of the Prodigal Son. We have heard this story so many times and we all love it, but after hearing it so often, we may have sentimentalized the parable, and perhaps even lost the truly radical and groundbreaking truth that Jesus reveals.
Yes, yes, we say: we know God is a Father who loves us, and he loves us all and forgives us our sins. True! And what great news! However, let’s think about the Father’s amazing words to his older son: You are always with me and everything I have is yours.
Now think about that! We often say that we know that God is always with us, but here the Father reminds us that we are always with him. We are always with the Father; we are always in his heart. Yes, always. Always.We can never be separated from the Father. Wow!
Despite what you might have learned from the Baltimore Catechism, or what some well-meaning but errant CCD teacher told you; despite all the preaching you may have heard about how, if you are in sin, you are far from God, separated from God, unworthy of God (and, if Catholic, had better not dare approach the Eucharistic table in such a state!) Yes, despite all those lies and betrayals of the Truth that Jesus teaches that you are NEVER separated from God. You are NEVER far from God; you are always with him and everything he has is yours! Oh, how we resist that! Oh, how we say, “But….” Nope. No “buts.” God has said it: You are always with me and everything I have is yours.
Now, the truth is, that we may sometimes feel far from God or that God is distant from us, and that may be because of all the wrong, anti-Gospel messages heaped upon us by the “religious” priest or nun or preacher or grandmom or parent. Those are messages that we need to unlearn. And many of us take years to unlearn them (or “deconstruct” all the lies and falsehoods put into our heads by “church people.”) And I think one of the best ways to unlearn them is simply to repeat the Father’s words every day, often throughout the day: You are always with me and everything I have is yours. Learn that! Let that sink in.
We might also feel distant from God because of our sins and mistakes. That is what sin does to us: it separates us from the deepest truth that we are NOT separated from God. Sin blurs our vision to the truth; it confuses us; it makes us believe in the illusion of separation. But as both the older and the younger son learned from their father, that separation is only an illusion. We literally CAN’T be separated from God because we literally live INSIDE God, INSIDE the heart of the Father. You, me, your family, your friends, your enemies, your dog, the tree in your yard—the entire cosmos—live INSIDE of God: IN Him we live and move and have our being.
And everything God has is ours: Life, Life, Goodness, Beauty, Joy, Peace, Mercy.
And, even more, we don’t have to do anything to earn that love, to be “worthy” of that love or to get back the gift of that Love. There’s no “getting back” what always has been and always will be ours!
The only thing we have to get back is the right mindset, the correct vision, the right way of seeing: As Dorothy Soelle put it: I am in God; I can’t fall out of God. I am invincible. Yes! That’s what the Father in the parable shows. And I might add, he reveals this especially in the one little line where Jesus tells us that the Father “ran” to his son. He “ran’! That isn’t sentimental. That’s scandalous! Men in Middle Eastern culture do not run. To run is a sign of being out of control, being messy. It was looked upon disdainfully. Disgraceful even.
Yet there it is: the Father runs: He doesn’t follow the rules! He is willing to disgrace himself (think: CROSS) to show us that no matter where we are, no matter in what condition we find ourselves, no matter what mess we may have made for ourselves—GOD IS THERE. God is with us, and we are with God. Isn’t that what Jesus reveals from the CROSS: that even in the darkest, most painful, frightening, godforsaken places of our hearts, our lives, our world-God is there! Love is there! There is no place outside of the reach of God because there is nowhere that God/Love is not!
Now of course this doesn’t mean that sin doesn’t matter. Of course it does! Look around and see what happens when people lose sight of the deepest truth that they—and everyone else—are with God and we are all sharing the “everything that God has.” Look at the mess we get ourselves in when we believe the lies and lose the vision.
So, my friends, at this midway point of Lent, we are invited to go back to the deepest truth of all, to the heart of the matter: WE live in the heart of the Father. We are with Him always. And everything He has is ours. When we’re good. When we’re bad. When we do things perfectly. When we seem to make mistake after mistake. When we get it right, when we get it wrong. Today, tomorrow and forever:
We are with Him always. And everything He has is ours.
Peace and every good,
Father Liam
Beautiful!!! Planning to share this with all my kiddos – I think it will resonate.