IS GOD 

THE GOD 

I  THINK  GOD  IS?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 16^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Is God the God I Think God Is?”

This might be a very tricky homily, thought, and question.

Don’t accept my words. Look at your thoughts about this question: “Is God the God I Think God Is?”

KIDS IMAGES OF GOD

When we ask little kids to draw a picture of God, we get some very interesting looking pictures.

Many are a picture of a big tall man in long robes and a beard.

I don’t know if that is everywhere around the world.

If we ask teenagers to draw a picture of God, we start to get some geometry in the mix - circles, triangles, and boxes. Abstraction has entered the picture.  We also get images of a mountain, a fire, a bird, and even a stick figure of a man on the cross might appear  in the assortment of teenager’s pictures.

AN ASSUMPTION

How would you draw God?  How do you picture God?

I assume that everyone - who says they believe in God has ideas and images about God.

Words are easier than pictures - maybe.  

When describing God I’ve also heard words like, “Love, Caring, Light, Kindness, Forgiveness, Creator, Artist”.

Or maybe when reflecting on the presence of God in our lives, what would it be like to close one's eyes and listen to the silence or to listen to a philharmonic orchestra.

DESCRIBING SELF OR OTHERS AND WE’RE WRONG AND INCOMPLETE

If we ask others to describe another,  I assume we’ll get answers, but I’ll also assume that we’re always wrong - and/or do I say, “incomplete”.

When someone describes us to us - we get upset at times - because we know that others really don’t know us - or our motives  - or how we really are.

So why don’t we apply that to others?

It’s my experience that we don’t. I know I don’t.

Remember the comment after John F. Kennedy died, “Johnny we hardly knew you.”

We can say that of everyone.

I used to write obituaries. Let me tell you, there are many takes on people.

LET’S JUMP BACK TO DESCRIBING GOD

If we jump to God,  I make the loud assumption that it’s idolatry many times when we describe God.

No wonder there is a whole school of spiritual writers that call God the Divine Dark.

There is the apophatic-kataphatic approach to God.  Apo - means away from. Nothing we say about God is God. Kata - means with - as in with images of God.

Okay, God is love. God is King. God is Shepherd. God is light. God is life.

Yet behind all these words and images there is our take on love, kings, shepherds, light, life. So no matter how we go, we’re subjective.

In the meanwhile, God is God.

God is the great I am.

NOW WHY THIS TALK TODAY?

The reason for this topic today is because of a phone call as well as today’s first reading.

I was talking to a family member on the phone yesterday and this lady said that she doesn’t buy that the God described in some psalms, is God.

We can say the same of God in today’s first reading. There’s God slaying, killing, leading the Egyptians into traps - and they are killed.

I remember reading the Koran once and I kept on hearing about a God who burns, burns, burns.

I thought to myself, “No wonder Moslems are always fighting.”

Then I started to prepare a homily for the day - and there in our scriptures I read about “our God” burning and killing people and cities.

Somewhere along the line I decided on the way of thinking that says we project onto God our ways of thinking.

I heard while we studied the Jewish Scriptures there was an evolution of thought when it comes to God.

Our Old Testament professor said it was a breakthrough when Isaiah talked about God being a God not only of the Jews - but also of all people.

CHRISTOCENTRIC

We who are blessed with the Christian Faith know the teachings that Christ is the Image of the Father. As Jesus said, “The one who sees me sees the Father.”

Yet there are those texts where Jesus says to us, “Whom do you say, I am?”

Down through the centuries people have killed others in the name of God and of Christ.

What to do: I’m assuming that when we die and meet God we’ll fall on our face and cry.

When we were novices in the Redemptorists we were told to lay on the floor before Christ - and before God - and adore our God in total humility.

I always like that prayer during Holy Week, when we priests lay down on the sanctuary floor. Now that we are old, arthritic, and/or fat, it’s difficult to pray in this position But it might be a great preparation for heaven.