Healthy People in a Healthy Relationship with a Healthy God
Offerings for consideration from a talk by Retired Catholic Bishop Geoffrey Robinson.
“There is only one God, but an endless variety of human misunderstandings of God. Unable to grasp the infinite God, we each create a lesser God in our minds and worship this.
In particular, we all have within us profound fears and longings, with the fears creating ideas of an angry god, and the longings ideas of a loving god. Our ideas of God will always be inadequate, but can at least be healthy, that is, enable us to grow.
To achieve this health, we must move:
from a god we can possess and dispense to others
to a God of infinite surprise;
from an elderly male god
to a God who is above all our limitations;
from a religion in which beliefs, duties and worship hold first place
to a religion in which a love relationship with God holds first place;
from an angry god, not to a god of soft love, but
to a God who, out of love is never afraid to challenge us to grow;
from divisions between sacred and profane
to the goodness of all creation;
from a god whose glory is to be found in our obedience
to a religion in which we must constantly abuse ourselves before God to a religion in which self-denial and self-love work together to help us become “fully alive”;
from a world without meaning
to a world in which our sense of meaning comes from the sum total of all the loves of our lives;
from a commercial relationship with a god whose rewards can be earned by doing right things
to a love relationship with a God who is pure gift;
from a relationship in which we determine exactly what part God shall be allowed in our lives
to a love relationship of total giving;
from a god who demands that we bridge the gap between us
to a God who always takes the first step and comes to us;
from prayer which consists solely in words
to a prayer in which our whole lives seek to express our desire for God;
from a god about whom we use many words
to a God whose greatness and mystery reduce us to silent wonder.”
Talk given at Faith Formators Colloquium, Mittagong, N.S.W. Nov. 2006.
