Who is God for me?
Who is God for me
In today's Gospel we hear again that the Jews intend to punish Jesus. What crime did he commit? This time Jesus is accused of blasphemy. At the same time, it is worth considering what this blasphemy could consist of. According to accepted norms in society, "blasphemy is an insult by word or deed to something universally respected, especially what religion considers sacred – sacrum." According to extra-biblical Talmudic sources, Jesus called the Nazarene was accused and convicted of practicing witchcraft, blasphemy, idolatry, as well as encouraging others to these practices. How do we relate all this to today's Gospel passage?
First of all, it is necessary to note the motives for accusing Jesus. Why did some Jews hate Jesus so much that they could find every argument, undermine every word of Him, just to condemn Him to death? To them, Jesus' good deeds and miracles did not matter. They were not the main cause of the accusations levelled against the Master of Nazareth. The opponents of Jesus could not comprehend and understand that He was the Son of God. This was beyond their understanding of God. They could not understand how God could have a Son and act in this way in the history of salvation. They did not worship God who sent his Son into the world to redeem it.
Today's Gospel also poses an important question to us. Like the Jews two thousand years ago, we must answer who is God for me and how we view His Son Jesus Christ. And nowadays this question is asked more and more often. It is interesting that in internet search engines, the most common question entered a year ago, beginning with the words: "Who is ...?", was the question about God and Jesus. This is a very important question. Because if we have the wrong concept of God, we will never believe in Him. Because either you believe in the true God or in a deity created by us, who is not the true God and the messiah.
My Archbishop once told such a story: 'Once I met a Jesuit priest Fr Kazimierz Dąbrowski, a man of the older generation, who as an atheist came to faith, as a believer he became a priest, as a priest he became a Jesuit. When he met a man who declared himself an unbeliever, he used to ask: "Who is God for you?" Hearing many answers to this question, he said: 'If I had the same concept of God as 95% of my interlocutors, I could not believe in Him either.'" The common denominator of all these answers was simply a misconception of God.
What is my idea of God? Who is God for me? We cannot escape these questions during Lent. We must answer them in order not to go astray in our lives. We see that the Jews were close to Jesus, heard his teaching, and admired his miracles. Yet they did not receive Him. Moreover, for who He was, under the pretext of blasphemy, they wanted to stone Him. The beginning of all this was that they could not see who Jesus really was. The beginning of life in truth, then, is to find the definition of God in one's life.
A legend says that a farmer, while plowing a field, found a coin with only two words: "God exists." The rest was invisible, rusty and obliterated. When he took the coin in his hand, after a moment's reflection he completed the inscription: "God is beauty".
The Roman replied, "God is omnipotence."
The Jew, looking at the coin, added, "God is law."
At the very end, the coin was in the hands of a Christian. He looked at it and without hesitation said, "God is love." For a Christian, this is the most accurate and best definition of God.
Do we belong to that group of Christians for whom God is love and Jesus is the Son of God? If we do not already believe this, we stone Jesus by our unbelief. But if we believe and confirm this with our daily lives, then the kingdom of God has come closer to us.
Thoughts from Saint Faustina: The Love of God is the flower – Mercy is the fruit (Diary 949) Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy. (Diary 301)
fr. george