God is not just.

There will be no reflection on Saturday.

I’ve been reading a treatise by Isaac of Nineveh (a 7^th century Syrian monk), who taught that God is not just. Follow his line of reasoning, if you will:

Just is simply not enough. If God were just, then most of us would be doomed because of our sins and failings. No. God is more than just. God is love, and his live overcomes any demands that justice might make, particularly when it comes to our salvation and redemption.

Isaac points to two examples in the Gospels of God’s love triumphing over justice:

·         The keeper of the vineyard who pays the last group of workers an entire day’s wage even though they had not earned it.

·         The parable of the prodigal son, who doesn’t get what he deserved, but was treated with prodigal love and compassion. (Some have suggested that a better name for this parable would be “the prodigal father.”

By looking at our own lives, perhaps, we can see Isaac’s point:

·         Can you recall a time in your life when you have been given a far greater blessing than you thought you deserved?

·         Can you recall a time in your life when your sins were cast aside and overlooked while, again, you have been blessed beyond anything you could have expected?

God is not merely just. He is so much more than that. Thank God.

Talk2003

I won’t have time to write a reflection today, so here are some excerpts from a talk I gave on campus about 12 years ago.

• The world preaches a way to happiness. But most of the time, it’s lying.  Check this rule out carefully: think of all the things that are being promoted to you on campus and in the dorms which are supposed to make you happy, but which turn out to be big, ugly disappointments. Or maybe even nightmares.
• Most people who spend their lives chasing the world’s route to happiness, whether through money, fame, sex, stuff, power, or whatever, never end up being happy.  In fact, they carry around an emptiness inside that never goes away, that can never be filled as long as they continue living the way they’re living.
• Portraits of human greatness: They all found ways to serve the world.
  Let’s talk about sin. After all, sin is a big part of our lives. We all do it, every day. In fact, most of us probably do far more sinning than we do serving. Then we wonder why we’re so seldom happy.
• Yeah. Not happy.  Sin causes suffering.
• We suffer because of our sin.  Sometimes it’s easy to see. Sometimes it’s not so easy.  Example: You’re nursing a grudge. Have you ever realized how much suffering that grudge is causing you?
• The greatest thing about God is that He knows what it’s like to be human.  Not because He made us, but rather, because in Jesus Christ He’s gone through it with us.
• He knows what you’re like. He knows what it’s like to be human.  He knows what it’s like to be hungry, and thirsty, to be tired and smelly.  He knows what it’s like to have a broken heart.  He knows what it’s like to be suffer terror. He knows what it’s like to struggle against temptation—remember what Hebrews says, He was tempted in every way that we are. He knows what it’s like to have people not understand him.  He knows what it’s like to be abandoned or betrayed by his friends. He even knows what it’s like to feel like God has given up on him. He also knows what it’s like to be punished for something he didn’t do.
• The most powerful place on the planet where you can receive the mercy of God and the relief from sin—a relief that he suffered to give you-- is in the confessional. Make sure you use it. It’s part of the plan God put into place to get you into heaven.
• God loves you. Accept the gift.