Stand for what you believe
COMPASSION: BETWEEN LOVE AND RULE ?
This evening, we have come to worship the Lord. How does he speak to us? What is he telling us now? God wants to tell us that he treats us with a love that we could never have deserved. He is near to all who call upon him.
From the first reading,the prophet Isaiah: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near”. Does he mean that God wants to play blind man’s buff : sometimes he disappears and then he appears again, back and forth? In fact, the prophet is responding to Jewish people living in exile in Babylon. In the nightmare of deprivation and suffering, the Jewish people start to question the presence of God in their life: “where is God who pretends to protect us? Why are we suffering so much? Why God has abandoned us? Why God is indifferent to our situation? Why God is so far from us?”
In our journey on this world, some troubles may happen to us and shake our faith. We may be tempted to doubt. We start to think: “maybe God is upset. Maybe God does not hear my prayer. Maybe God wants to punish me for this and that. Maybe maybe…”. These negative thoughts about God can undermine our relationship with Him. The prophet Isaiah wants to tell us this simple truth: when we doubt about God’s presence, we chose ourselves to stay far from him. Our human thoughts always keep us in a position of victim: we judge ourselves, we condemn ourselves, we try to justify our behavior and so on…. This way of thinking may affect our relationship with God.
Today, God wants to tell us that his thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways are not our ways. When we doubt, God always continue to trust us. When we condemn ourselves, God always shows mercy: he is generous in forgiving, slow to anger and of great kindness, good to all and compassionate towards all his works. Today God wants to welcome us with open arms. Let us forsake our old way of thinking and accept his offer with gratitude.
Today’ gospel emphases about God’s measureless generosity. The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. At the end of the day, he gave equal wage to all of them, despite their different work.
Once again, we may think about our own way of proceeding: we are paid according to our work. We are rewarded according to our merit. But with God, it is not a human justice of business; it is an abundance of love, compassion and grace. In a relentless way, God goes out himself to find laborers (five times).He shows his willingness to hire the “rejects’ and his desire to pay them a full day’s wage. The love of heaven takes the initiative in seeking us out. The love of heaven chooses us despite our utter unworthiness. The love of heaven is lavish in its self-gift to us (Magnificat September 2008). “Every man, whoever he is, whatever he possesses and whatever he is capable of doing, owes all this to God the creator of the universe” (Maximilian Kolbe). The prodigal son and the good son, the publicans and the Pharisees, the pagans converted, the last thief on the cross, all of them are God’s children.
Therefore, what do we expect from God? More love. And so, let us pray that God may strengthen our faith and give the wisdom to discern his actions of love and compassion in our daily life. Let us pray that he may help us to serve him with generosity.
