Wellspring of the Gospel

 

Year A: Trinity Sunday

 First Reading: Exodus 34: 4-6, 8-9

God revealed Himself as a God of love from the very beginning: a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.

Moses is, however, realistic about the people God has called as His own - acknowledging that they are headstrong and with faults and sins which render them unworthy of the dignity that God offers to them.

The link with the Gospel is fairly clear!

God was all too aware of the lack of faithfulness of the Hebrew people - and yet, had intervened and, through Moses, liberated them from their forced labour in Egypt.

God also knew that the same headstrong people would defy Him - and disobey Him - or forget Him - and still insisted that they should know Him first and foremost as a God of love and compassion.

It is a timely reminder in our day when some people struggle with images of God. Fed on images of God as stern judge, strict Father - One who demanded the blood of His Son to “pay back” for the sins of humanity, many reject a God they can no longer believe in.

The First Reading takes us back to the origins of our Story - to the God who is beginning to reveal Himself. The Gospel shows us God made human - a God who lives and dies because we of love and compassion beyond nay we could understand or deserve.

God’s love does not make Him weak - or permissive. God is a God of justice - and repeatedly shows that He is on the side of those who are hurt - oppressed - and calls to account those who abuse their power.

God is a God of love - a love that has been tested generation after generation - even until our own! But it is a love that was tough enough to enter the world on humanity’s terms - to suffer and to die - and, because God is God, ultimately to be victorious.

What does it mean for me?

Waterlily What is the nature of God revealed in the Reading?

How does it match your own image of God?

Text © 2007 Wellspring

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