The Goodness of God

16th Sunday of the Year (A)
17 July 2011
St. Anthony, DSM
http://www.usccb.org/nab/071711.shtml

How good is God? Today’s readings impel us to ask the question of God’s own goodness. Oftentimes, we think of God as being distant, as not caring about us. Other times, we think God is judging us and punishing us, as if this is what God does, as if this were his plan for us.

However, this is not who God is. He isn’t watching us under a microscope, judging us, waiting for us to fail, and punishing us because of some sinister delight he might have. Rather, God is gentle with us. He created us and has given us his Holy Spirit, so that like yeast in dough, he allows us to grow into that which he created us to be. Even when sin enters our hearts, entangles itself in our souls, and we go ahead and live with it rather than coming to confession and rooting it out of our lives, God remains gentle. As the parable from the Gospel states, he allows the weeds to grow with the crop for fear of damaging the crop. In fact, God is so good that he is able to yield a harvest even from weeds – he is able to bring good out of evil.

How good is God? His might is the source of Justice. His mastery – Lordship – over all things makes him lenient to all. Parents understand this. Children make mistakes, mess up, disappoint. And yet, good parents love their children. They are not disappointed in their children. They aren’t out to make their children mess up, and they don’t delight in punishing them. And yet, parents still discipline them and correct so that their children can grow into something good and wholesome, and not be entangled in the weeds of this world.

Why is it so hard for us to see how good God is to us? I think we need to ask what kind of people we are. There are many of us who treat others according to the negative God-as-punisher way. We see this all the time in the media today – how quick we are to condemn someone without knowing all the facts (for only God can look into a person’s heart!) We look and wait, expecting people to make mistakes, and we pounce on them to make ourselves feel better for a brief moment of time. We don’t trust others, and we certainly don’t forgive. Cardinal George in Chicago has described our culture as one in which “everything is permitted and nothing forgiven.”

If we are called to be like God, if we are united with him in our baptism, given his spirit in Confirmation, and come to his altar every week to receive the Body and Blood of his Son, transforming us more and more into his own divine image – then we certainly must start acting more like him. He is loving, compassionate, forgiving – all while being entirely just and true. He doesn’t ignore the weeds and bundle them with the crop. He still sifts them out and burns them away. But, he doesn’t punish what is good in people – he never looses sight of the good crop which was sown.

My dear brothers and sisters, this is our ground for hope. Almighty God judges us with clemency, and so we have confidence in the forgiveness of our sins, most especially in the Sacrament of Penance. Let us then live in this hope, let us be truly contrite for our sins, thankful for God’s mercy and love, and trusting in his salvation. And let us love one another, as Christ himself has taught us.