The meaning of the Power of God
Let me not forget that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is “Almighty”. He can do whatever he wills. There is no restriction to what he can do. Should we not be happy that we are in the hands of such a mighty God? But unfortunately we forget the Might and greatness of this good Father and offend him by our sins and we sometimes go far away from him. Here we come in front a great mystery. We may ask: should not God who is all powerful prevent the human being from committing sins? Could he not prevent him from going away from God or breaking the relationship with him? The great thing is that God has made us persons endowed with intelligence and free will and he will never touch our freedom. He could persuade and attract us but he can never pull us or push us against our will and God respects our choices.
Power of God in Forgiveness
But the greatness and power of God are manifested in his generosity in forgiving this poor mortal his great sins. Jesus speaks to us about the forgiveness of this Father who is kind to all. The famous parable of the Prodigal Son is also often called the parable of the Prodigal Father because the Father seems to be too generous in forgiving the younger son who had wasted away his property, a property which legally belongs to the Father as long as the Father is alive. In this parable (Lk 15. 11-32), the Father is not standing on ceremony: the son has returned, he is obviously repentant and that is enough he would give him everything and restore to him his dignity as his son. This is exactly what God our Heavenly Father does to us who sin so often and go away from him. All that he expects, Jesus tells us, is that we too be generous in forgiving others the little mistakes they make against us. And this any number of times. In the parable that Jesus gives in answer to Peter’s question how many times to forgive his brother the wrong done, perhaps seven times, he tells him not seven but seventy times seven which means any number of times. We should note that seven is the biblical number for fullness and seventy times should mean any number of times. You will find this passage in Mt 18.21-35 and the last verse tells us that the heavenly Father would treat us like the master in the parable which is standing threat to all who refuse to forgive.
Father’s forgiveness manifested in the words & deeds of Jesus
The forgiveness of the Father should not be restricted to only the description Jesus gives us about the Father but it extends to all that Jesus himself does. It is looking at him we realize the goodness, kindness and love of the Father. We see Jesus welcoming all sinners, sinners of every description. He would accord them “table fellowship” which the orthodox Jews would not give to so-called sinners, the blind, the lame and all who were physically challenged in one way or another. They considered all such persons as sinners and unworthy of partaking the meal in the company of the pure and the orthodox Jews. He would only say: to the paralytic “My son your sins are forgiven” (Mk2.5); to the woman caught in adultery “go and do not sin again” (Jn 8. 11); to the man cured after 38 years at the pool of Beth-zatha “See you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you” Jn 5.14; to Zacchaeus “Today salvation has come to this house” (Lk 19.9); to the woman who wept at his feet and anointed it with ointment and wiped with her hair and kissed it “Your sins are forgiven” (Lk 7.48); in the vocation story of Mathew (Levi) he declares (Lk 5.27-32) “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”; finally to the repentant thief on the cross “today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23.43). So you see in all these actions and words of Jesus the heavenly Father himself since he had said to Philip in answer to his request show us the Father and it is enough: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14.9). In the Father such forgiveness is so simple and easy. Let your attitude be changed from one of being at enmity with God to one of obedience and love, God the Father is more than satisfied. He does not ask for anything more by way of long and arduous penances trying to make up for all your sins. You could never succeed in that venture. Repent and be changed and it is enough. The Father will say also of you “You are also my beloved son/daughter”
Almighty Power of God & Evil?
A question could be asked: whether God could wish evil for anyone or even create those that are evil? The answer is that it is impossible for God to wish evil or do evil or make things evil. This is because that God’s nature is good and he cannot but do good. Even devils were but angels when God created them; they were good but they made a wrong choice using their God-given freedom and the almighty God could do nothing in front of his own decree of granting freedom to angels and human beings who were made in his image and are persons! Someone may persist and ask about those passages in the Old Testament where we find God being angry, sad, disappointed and punishing. These are anthropomorphic representations i.e., human beings imagining their own emotions and transferring it to God and the Sacred Writers wanting to impress upon human beings how God would have felt if he were human. Of course we see all these emotions in Jesus Christ the Incarnate One and there we come to realize how deeply God could feel the ingratitude, the stubbornness and the many insults they heaped upon him resisting truth, life and light.
Read CCC 268 to 278, 391 to 395; 309 to 314.
To be continued next Thursday…