What walls do we set up to keep God’s love from touching us?
It can be hard to deal with the divine. When, in Exodus, the people whom Moses brought out of the land of Egypt think
he’s been lost on the mountain, they make for themselves a molten calf out of gold to worship and sacrifice to. Their fear and obstinacy are walls they set
up between themselves and God, and it is only through the intervention of Moses
that the Lord relents in the punishment
he had threatened to inflict on his people. In the case of King David, lust and murder are walls he has
erected between himself and God. Having had
Uriah killed so as to take his wife Bathsheba, David is now contrite and humbled; in Psalm 51, he
asks God to express the greatness of God’s
compassion in the form of mercy,
creating in David a clean heart with
which to love God, and love other.
The Pharisees and scribes who are part of Jesus’ audience in
Luke’s Gospel have also erected walls between themselves and God, in the form
of 613 rigid laws they believe guarantee their righteousness, unlike the tax collectors and sinners Jesus seems
to welcome and eat with. The parables Jesus
tells them to correct this misconception all focus on what is lost, and then found –
the sheep lost in the desert, the coin lost in the house, the son lost to a life of dissipation. In every case, God brings the lost home; God’s
mercy allows each and every one – Pharisees and tax collectors, scribes and
sinners alike – to embrace the love God offers.
But first they must repent, hearts open to receive that love, hearts
ready to share the gift that is theirs. Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners, Paul tells Timothy – Paul, who had his own walls to tear down: I was
once a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant, but I have been mercifully
treated. And now? The
faith and love that are in Christ Jesus are abundant, he says.
Do our hearts know how to love God? How can we identify and tear down the walls we erect
between ourselves and God, so that God’s love and mercy might flow in, flowing
then from us to all the world?
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.Image source: Wordle
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