Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s first reading is an eventful episode in Hebrew history and the Gospel is the rich center of the Sermon on the Mount. Both of these were tempting, albeit overwhelming. In the end, it was the Psalm that caught my eye.
The last stanza is what captured my attention. It reads, “If his sons forsake my law and walk not according to my ordinances, if they violate my statutes and keep not my commands. I will punish their crime with a rod and their guilt with stripes. Yet my mercy I will not take from him, nor will I belie my faithfulness.” Cheery, right? Here it is the Jubilee of Mercy and I’m reflecting on rods and stripes. But I think there is a lesson to learn from these words that we might be quick to dismiss as uncomfortable Old Testament theology.
All throughout scripture God’s parental relationship is revealed to us. In the Old Testament, it is alluded to in analogy. In the Gospels, Jesus tells us to call God, “Father.” And in the New Testament letters, Paul tells us that by virtue of our adoption into God’s family through the Spirit we can cry out “Abba.” In this context, we don’t see an angry God looking for His pound of flesh, but a parent making the tough choice between leniency and strictness.
What I take from this passage is the confirmation that God is not a helicopter parent. God loves us, provides for our needs (Matt. 6:25-33), seeks our best interests, desires our prosperity (2 Chr. 24:20), and longs for us to find fulfillment in Him. God is merciful but not enabling; gentle but not a pushover. God is our comfort, our support, and our physician, which we desperately need because He does not insulate us from our consequences. This is not an attempt to rationalize away suffering or hardship. It is a recognition that God, like the father in the Prodigal Son, extends good things to us. God knows we can squander and misuse them, but He never shuts the door in our faces when we wish to come home. Instead, He rushes out to meet us when we are still a long way off. The mystery of this freedom lets us love more deeply the Lord who is our rescue, our help, and our salvation. God is neither a helicopter parent nor is He an absent Father.
- Spencer Hargadon