Friday 12 August 2011

If we are the body of Christ, then I am not sure how to trust him.

What do you think?

4 comments:

  1. By your question do you mean that because there is something in humanity, either partially or collectively, which is untrustworthy, that you find God difficult to trust? Or do you mean, because of the concept, the Body of Christ, something in we as people comprising God makes it too difficult for you to understand how or what to trust about God? Or is it something else altogether? I want to understand your question.

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  2. I have noticed that God chooses to work through us, his Church. BUt God does not always get his will because I do not always do what he wants. What if when I am in need the person who God desires to respond to my need is unfaithful. I guess God could use someone else. I guess I find humans hard to trust. I expect to be let down, but if God chooses to work through humans, that worries me. Does that make sense?

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  3. Yes, God does work through individuals. But the Will of God—like God Himself—is so much greater than any one human being, even than one city or civilization that it does not depend on our cooperation. He accomplishes His purposes through us but still has given each a free will. Have you never witnessed a transformative event where you felt you were used by the Holy Spirit for His good purposes? You received the praise or credit for something which you knew you did not deserve? And likewise, there are those times when we are caught up in something disastrous not of your own making. I like to think of the Will of God like a Great Flood. I may work together with others to sandbag, or evacuate or otherwise divert the raging river and thereby save a town, a home, a farm or a child, but I cannot stop the river. It will go on. No, that is not a perfect analogy. There probably isn’t one. God is beyond all analogies, beyond all description, beyond anything we can say or write or comprehend. That is why the great St. Augustine had this experience when he was trying to write about the mind of God. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest minds who ever lived wrote the Summa Theologica—a four Volume work of Theology most Catholics today haven’t read because it’s so difficult they can’t understand it. At the end of his life, he had a vision of God and God asked him what he wanted and Thomas, said, “Only You LORD.” After that, Thomas never wrote another thing. He supposedly told those he spoke to about it that all he had written was dross. We can never ever understand God and yet we never stop trying to, wanting to, and searching after Him. He is the only purpose of life. Are we His Body? Yes, to the extent that we matter to Him. When we injure another human being we injure Christ Himself.

    But to comment on your statements, do I expect to be let down by people? Yes, I do! Do I trust them? Funny you should ask that.

    Mother Teresa has this saying which I really like. Here it is: “People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

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  4. BookLady, cool, thanks for your thoughts. I do appreciate them. and that does make a lot of sense to me. It is like in the book of Esther when God choses to work through Esther, but if she is unfaithful, God would have found another way to save the Jews.

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