{"id":22808,"date":"2023-08-24T10:57:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T14:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22808"},"modified":"2023-08-24T11:18:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T15:18:30","slug":"the-big-picture-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22808","title":{"rendered":"The Big Picture of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How He Loves Us - David Crowder Band (Lyrics) (HD)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qDSE438XMaQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In this homily, Father Richard describes how different God\u2019s methods of transformation and correction are from ours:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Isaiah 35:4\u20137 is quite an important reading for what we call \u201crestorative justice.\u201d It begins by saying: \u201cSay to those who are frightened: Be strong, fear not. Here is your God. He comes with vindication. He comes with divine recompense\u201d (35:4). <strong>Most people stop reading here, after the supposed threats\u2014but threats don\u2019t save anybody. We have to continue to the next lines for the \u201cgood news\u201d where Isaiah defines how YHWH is going to save the people Israel: \u201cGod comes to save you, God will open the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf will be cleared, the lame will leap like a stag, and the tongue of the mute will sing\u201d (35:5\u20136). God doesn\u2019t come with punishment\u2014in fact, God comes to love us, heal us, and transform us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost all of us in Western civilization were educated with the notion of <em>retributive justice<\/em>. Our entire penal system and judicial systems are based on it. Even the old-fashioned ideas of heaven and hell are based on it: i<strong>f we sin this much, we get this much punishment; if we do this much good, we get this much heaven. It\u2019s a pretty sick system, based on quid pro quo thinking. There\u2019s nothing grand, transformative, or godly about it.<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the great surprise of the Hebrew Scriptures, revealed in this central passage from Isaiah: <strong>People are not going to get what they deserve, they\u2019re going to get much better than they deserve.<\/strong> God says, <strong>\u201cThe way I punish you\u2014this vindication, this retribution\u2014is actually going to be by loving you more and loving you more deeply.\u201d<\/strong> Show me anyone whose heart was changed by punishing them! <strong>Love is the only thing that transforms the human heart.<\/strong> Nothing else. I was a jail chaplain for fourteen years and I have seen the evidence. We can punish people all we want, and the more we punish people and imprison people, the worse they become.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many Catholics grew up with the threat of purgatory and arbitrary sentences doled out for various sins\u2014from three days in purgatory to three months to three years. Please tell me how that makes us love God more? <strong>In fact, what it\u2019s done is make a high percentage of Catholics fear God, not love God. It certainly did not make us love our neighbor.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think the question we really have to ask is, \u201c<strong>Do we like restorative justice?\u201d If we\u2019re honest, we\u2019ll admit that we like to see people punished. We like to see people in jail and for them to \u201cget what they deserve.\u201d <\/strong>How different God is from humanity! We don\u2019t know God, agree with God, or understand God. We think in such a small, small way. <strong>We think fear and anger and judgment and punishment are going to achieve love\u2014but show me where?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>___________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young Jesus Listens<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Triumphant God, <strong>If You are for me, who can be against me? Please help me to grasp\u2014in the depths of my being\u2014that You really are for me. <\/strong>When things don\u2019t go my way or someone I trusted turns against me, it\u2019s easy for me to feel abandoned. So it\u2019s essential at such times to remind myself of the truth: <strong>You are not only with me always, You are for me all the time. This is true on days when I perform well and on days when I don\u2019t, when people treat me well and when they don\u2019t.<\/strong> I can face adversity more calmly and courageously by trusting wholeheartedly that You are for me. <strong>Knowing that You will never turn against me gives me confidence to persevere during tough times. <\/strong>Because I belong to You forever, I am continually in Your approving Presence. I\u2019m thankful that it\u2019s ultimately Your opinion of me that matters\u2014and will continue to matter throughout all eternity. <strong>And I rejoice that nothing in all creation will be able to separate me from Your Love! <\/strong>In Your invincible Name, Jesus, Amen <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROMANS 8:31; What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MATTHEW 28:20 NLT; Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NUMBERS 6:26 AMPC; he Lord<strong>&nbsp;lift up<\/strong>&nbsp;His<strong>&nbsp;[approving] countenance upon you and give you peace<\/strong>&nbsp;(tranquility of heart and life continually).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROMANS 8:39; <strong>neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young, Sarah. Jesus Listens (p. 247). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this homily, Father Richard describes how different God\u2019s methods of transformation and correction are from ours:&nbsp;&nbsp; Isaiah 35:4\u20137 is quite an important reading for what we call \u201crestorative justice.\u201d It begins by saying: \u201cSay to those who are frightened: Be strong, fear not. Here is your God. He comes with vindication. He comes with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22808"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22817,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22808\/revisions\/22817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}