Search
February 12: Not Our Ways, but God's Ways
-
Our good God is a saving God. Understanding. Compassionate. Merciful. Beautiful. Abiding. Everlasting. Accepter of Prayers. Yet, as we hear in this Sunday’s first reading from the Book of Sirach, “The eyes of God are on those who fear him.” A God who instills fear? Or expects our fear? God’s eyes being on those who fear him does not mean God keeps a close eye on those of us shaking in our boots, ready to catch us in an act of sin. “Hmm, God’s watching me real closely right now. I can feel his eyes penetrating all the way through my skin and into my soul. I better make the right choice on this matter.” This is not a bad thought, for sure. But I suppose if this were the way things went down with God’s eyes on us, it would have to be considered a show of force ready to dole out some punishment when we choose sin over holiness. Although very possible, this could also be considered some strange form of Divine control, if you will. It could be seen as an attack on the very freedom God has given to us, would it not, if God watching us was for the purpose of pouncing on us with punishment for the improper choice, which we all make at some point. Even St. Paul struggled with this.
I prefer more the Scriptural thought on this matter: “Whichever he (meaning us) chooses, shall be given to him.’ If we choose life, then life it is. If we choose death through sinning, then death through sinning it is. If we choose to feed the hungry, then a work of mercy is added to our heavenly checklist because God’s eyes were/are on us. If we choose to ignore a neighbor that God sends in our direction, then, yes, we choose to ignore God himself, who said, “What you did for the least of my people, you did for me.” The Book of Sirach is very clear; “No one does he command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin.” So, when the immoral choice is made, we own it. It was a choice made on our own, away from God’s commands.
Imagine what the eyes of God see everyday in our world. Millions upon millions of acts of both love and hatred. I like to think the acts of love extended each day on this planet, which most times go unnoticed to the wider world, outnumber the chosen acts of hatred. This makes for an interesting question, “Does God number, through what he sees in every corner at every moment, acts of love and acts of hatred, and who commits whichever one? Obviously, if God was human, then the Lord would be working overtime – and then some – to stay up with an accurate number of acts of love and hatred. Personally, I’d love to know which country in our wide, small world is the leader in each category. Would a godless, atheistic nation be the leader in acts of hatred? Maybe, or maybe not.
There are predominantly godless nations today because of governments, (China, for example), and not because of the choice of their people. So maybe, with good people working behind the scenes in nations with godless governments, they may be at the top of God’s list of eye-watching in reference to acts of love. Which would make sense, because where oppression exists, even in our own nation, the goodness of people will work overtime toward acts of love that offset the human imbalance of what a godless, oppressive, aggressive government attempts to impose on its people. There is also a high chance of acts of hatred in such a nation when citizens blindly go along with an atheistic, autocratic government that oppresses and imposes, rather than recognizing godless hatred, thus not participating in it. Either way, God is watching.
And, what country in our world would come in first place for the highest percentage of people who commit acts of love on a daily basis? A country with a group of citizens who are God-fearing in the best ways of this virtue, possessing a genuine concern for each other as God commands. Which nation makes God smile the most, is another way of saying it. A nation capable of teaching other nations how to choose love over hatred. How to choose morality over immorality. I strongly suspect that the number one nation in acts of authentic love is possibly found somewhere on the continent of Africa. Despite harsh levels of violence in a few African nations due to theocracy or outright godlessness, many African nations, such as Fr. Enoch’s Ghana, are blessed nations who make God smile through their continuous religious faithfulness and acts of love toward their brothers and sisters. Just a guess on my part. I do feel pretty certain about one thing though, with regard to nations in Africa and their faithfulness to God; it is this part of the world who will bring God back into the lives of many other nations and peoples, especially in Europe, nations who have completely or pretty much lost their faith. God’s eye-watching directed at African nations, in many respects, is pleasing. Personally, I would love to see a future Pope come from this area of the world for the good of God’s Church.
On a more personal level, I know not of one person who counts either their good deeds or evil deeds each day. I’ve yet to visit a home where can be seen a blackboard or notebook separated into good deeds and evil deeds for the home’s occupants. I’m surprised my mother never did this for my brothers and me (my sisters were always good). For those who live a lifestyle of good deeds, they’re usually too humble to count the good they mete out to others, the many good choices they know are authentically good before God. Imagine if Elaine LeBlanc from our Parish’s Human Services Ministry were to count what she and others in the ministry have accomplished in numbers for Jesus’ name over the years on behalf of others? She would need stacks and stacks of paper to keep count of how many acts of love have been shown by her and her little elves.
Just what I’ve seen in a short amount of time here at St. Anne’s is phenomenal. Makes a person realize that God is at work in the ministry. Elaine’s Godly work reminds me of that great verse at the end of John’s Gospel written about Jesus and all the Lord accomplished in his short lifetime; “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). One thing’s for certain; what the Human Services Ministry at St. Anne’s accomplishes throughout a given year regarding the number of acts of love extended, they would go a very long way towards offsetting the number of acts of hatred that occur in the United States. And this is only one of thousands of such ministries that flow from our Catholic faith and other church communities in this land.
Rather than thinking in numbers that cannot be kept track of anyway, for all of us have lost count between good and evil choices by way of thought, word, or deed at this point in our lives, the better formula is to fall in love with the commands of God that are not burdensome. And not only are they not burdensome, but they are also lovely. As the years go by on in this matter and many other matters that really do matter to God, I find myself searching more and more through the pages of our faith, if you will, searching for words and examples that descend directly from God above to earth below. Words and examples that allow us to grow deeper in love with the Lord, recognizing all he has done for us in leading us back into right relationship with the Father, doing so through a Cross and empty grave. The first sources of such accurate information is, of course, the word of God, along with the Holy Tradition, our faith’s two sources of Divine Revelation. What comes directly from God through human sources is guaranteed to satisfy our souls. In seeking to satisfy our souls before the satisfaction of stomach, goods, and whatever other satisfaction that is centered in ourselves, the “soul satisfaction” through prayer, faith, and good works is a satisfaction that God Himself notes, never forgetting them on our behalf. This can come only from acts of authentic love, imitating the sacrificial love of Christ in our lives.
Again, does God count the number of our deeds, whether good or evil? When we leave this place and make our one and only face-to-face appearance before the Creator of the stars, will we ascend or descend according to the number of proper, holy choices we made in our lifetime? Choices that reflected the living out of our faith? Will the majority of our choices be in the affirmative, or the negative? God doesn’t need to count, for he knows all things at all times, so justice up or down will be swift. God won’t be saying to us, “Hold on for a few days, I lost count of your deeds of faith. I’ll get back to you shortly.” No, we’ll be waiting for about one particle of a second before the elevator goes to the right or left, up or down. Before we join the rich man or Lazarus.
“If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live…” Where we stand at the end of our lives with the above words from Sirach is rather huge, especially for those who experience conversion after a lifetime of misery. But the better and safer road is always to touch others with love at this time. The path to heaven is decorated with acts of authentic love. And the sooner we find this path, the sooner we will make our nation one of teaching other nations the ways of the Lord God, each day drawing away from secular ways while drawing closer to and sharing with others the ways of God.