Almighty wants us to carry out the Divine Mission

Letters to the editor: Lawmakers lauded for votes
June 19, 2012
Not your father’s union
June 19, 2012
Letters to the editor: Lawmakers lauded for votes
June 19, 2012
Not your father’s union
June 19, 2012

A father was enjoying a spectacular sunset with his young daughter. “Isn’t it beautiful what God has done?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” she said. “To think that God did it all with his left hand.”


Bewildered, the father asked, “‘With his left hand?’ What do you mean?”


“Well, God couldn’t use his right hand, because Jesus was sitting on it.”

We often use expressions and symbols to try to understand the splendor and majesty of the Almighty but we are limited in our attempts to penetrate the mystery of who God is. God is pure spirit, so no possible picture or symbol can adequately represent God. God is infinite and therefore beyond anything that we could ever understand.


We can try to represent God by triangles, or clovers, or in human terms like the Father as an old bearded man sitting on his thrown looking down on the earth from outer space. However, all these fall short of the reality of the Divinity. Anything that we say of God – God is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, all compassionate, all perfect – does not come close to the reality.


An image might help to understand the vast difference between us and God. Let’s say God is like the huge Pacific Ocean and we are like a little thimble of water; or better, God is like the Pacific Ocean multiplied 100 times larger and we are like the little thimble of water but reduced 100 times smaller.

The comparison limps terribly because the difference between us and God is not about physical size but rather about God’s infinite greatness in comparison with our insignificance. That is the mystery: this infinite God loves each of us and has adopted us into his family through baptism.

St. Paul tells us in Romans that Jesus told us to pray to our Creator as our Father, “Abba” which means “Dad or Daddy.” He could have just as easily told us to call God “Mom or Mother” because we know there is no gender in God.

God is pure spirit. He wanted us to realize that this magnificent God wants a personal relationship with us, a relationship of love. Jesus came to bring us the good news that God is love. He told us that we were created out of love, and taught us how to love unconditionally with no strings attached.

Jesus was the perfect human expression of God. In Jesus we discover how loving and compassionate God is. He showed us that love by healing the sick, forgiving sins, raising the dead back to life, feeding the hungry, demanding justice for those who were being excluded and discriminated against, and staying in close union with the Father through frequent prayer.

Jesus also sent us on a mission to complete the world he began. He commissioned all his followers, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you.” We share intimately in the life, love and mission of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus also promised to send his followers the gift of the Holy Spirit to live in us and empower us to continue the mission he started – building God’s kingdom of justice, love and peace in our world. That same Holy Spirit was given to us by the Father and Jesus in our Baptism to dwell within us as the infinite love of God and to empower us to carry out the mission of Jesus.

St. Paul tells us, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God.” Let us not be afraid to carry out God’s mission.