22nd Sunday Who is God?

Pope Benedict 16 wrote that Jesus, as THE ultimate prophet, fully reveals the face of God. Pope Francis calls us as Church to be as Jesus in the world.

Jesus reveals God. We are called to reveal God. This has profound implications for us as Catholics on how we believe and what we believe. We need to ask ourselves: what does Jesus reveal of God, what does God look like?

God has no particular color, characteristics, no political party. God favors no country above another. God loves. God sees good in all and wishes for that goodness to come through. God calls us to be transformed. God is self giving.  And all of us need to be challenged in our concept of God...Continually. Otherwise we settle into a version of God that fits our own individual mode of thinking; we conform God to our vision of the world, our view of politics. We create an idol and that is what we often will spread. This applies left or right, progressive or conservative.   When we spread our own idea of God and truly not God, then we add to the suffering of this world.  We do not join in the raising up of this world.  Even the Church throughout the centuries has evolved in its understanding of God.

Peter thinks he has it. Last week in our Gospel he states the Truth of Jesus, Jesus is the anointed one.  But this Truth that Peter has is abstract. When Jesus brings this Truth to reality, it conflicts with Peter’s idea of the Truth. Peter tells Jesus how he is to be the face of God. Peter needs to grow.

The Face of God is seen when men and women give of themselves and fight for civil rights and for justice for all people; for the black person, for the immigrant, for women, for anybody denied their rights by those who think they have power.

The Face of God is seen whenever and wherever a wife and husband give of themselves and forgive each other when there has been a hurt; they work together for the unity of their family. They grow together as persons.

The Face of God is seen wherever and whenever people give of themselves with generosity, willingly changing their own lives so that others may have a chance to escape poverty; have a chance to support their own families.

The face of God is present when people are called to see beyond their right to choose, in whatever form it may take, and see we all have a responsibility to the whole. It is when we recognize we are loved, but we also need to change the direction of our lives. It is when in our indignation we recognize our need for humility.

God becomes present whenever a choice is made to listen and we grow in compassion, empathy.

I hear a lot of people commenting on the Faith of others, judging others on their level of faith. How Unchristian is this? They judge from their own basis, their own criteria, their own egos. People get upset at others when they speak of faith that seems to contradict their own individual beliefs, and so they attack.

How do we see God?   Can we let ourselves imagine that maybe we don’t have it all? And that each of us needs to continue to grow? To be challenged?

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