An Image of God with Two Hands: One with Love/Mercy and the Second as a Judge: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Listen to the homily here.

Notes:

15^thSunday in Ordinary Time

Recently I heard a great image of God with two hands: Love/mercy and judge

In the Old Testament, the Israelites new, clearly that God was a judge

Then Jesus came and show both love and as a judge…and in our culture today, we forget about Who is the judge?

·     There needs balance

We heard of the Good Samaritan

·     “And who is my neighbor?”

·     Supposedly he new the law, aka the Judge of God and he needed to knew about the hand of God’s love and mercy

But today, let’s consider once again that God is a judge

·      I love the passage we heard in Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Bible, something like a grandfather reminding his grandkids

·     He did so by saying that we must follow God’s commandments and here is what I enjoy:

·     “For this command that I enjoin on you today
is not too mysterious and remote for you.
It is not up in the sky, that you should say,
'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
Nor is it across the sea, that you should say,
'Who will cross the sea to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
No, it is something very near to you,
already in your mouths and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out."

This weekend I would like to ask you about this image of God’s hands with mercy and as a judge

·     If we believe in just love, and we are all going to heaven (no matter what sins we have offered) does that make sense?  If not and you are already saints, why do you need a savior?

·     On the opposite, if God is just a tyrant who wants us to be smote and going to hell, does that make sense either?

What I encourage you this week is to remember that God is a judge, meaning that we are sinful, we must need a savior, we must need his love and mercy, but many people have forgotten that His son died on the cross because of our sins, because we need a Judge who can open the gates of heaven when we seek our Judge to His love