Good and God and Rohr

“God does not love you because you are good; God loves you because God is good. And then you can be good because you draw upon such an Infinite Source. The older I get, the more I am sure that God does all the giving and we do all of the receiving. God is always and forever the initiator in my life, and I am, on occasion, the half-hearted respondent. My mustard seed of a response seems to be more than enough for a humble God, even though the mustard seed is “the tiniest of all the seeds” (Matthew 13:32).” Adapted from Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality (Franciscan Media: 2008), 163-164.

God making butterflies from caterpillars at Izzy's

We once had a very intelligent friend who told us as soon as she became a better person, she would come back to the church. I actually hear this same thing from so many coming for spiritual direction. They either see church as a house full of hypocrites or the opposite, a gathering of the most holy of which they are unworthy. My favorite answer, of course, is that a church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners! We go to meet God, to give thanks, to praise God, ask for forgiveness, and share the God within each of us with the God in our neighbors, neighbors often so different from ourselves. Rohr is teaching us, reminding us that it is God who is the good one, always present, forgiving, supporting, encouraging, loving. This is a hard concept for people who have been raised with a judgmental image of God, because often, they as well have unknowingly become most judgmental.

Joanna joannaseibert.com