What is God like? Who is God like?

What is God like

Photo by Guillermo Ferla on Unsplash

What is God like? Who is God like?

These are questions asked seriously in every generation by people searching for a way to live or more accurately, a way of being.

This gospel gives an answer to the question which is paradoxical. God who is powerful, Creator of a beautiful and glorious creation, is one who looks with favour on the ‘children’ of this world.

Who are’ the children?’ The ‘children’ are a symbol of the poor, the powerless, those who have no control over their lives, at the mercy of the powerful, as they have always been. God has a concern for them.

The person of Jesus, whom Christians believe is God and sent by God, revealed God’s attitudes and actions. He also invited us to become like Him by following his example and through our identification with him in baptism, we live his life and he lives his life in us.

It doesn’t make for an easy ride through life, another paradox, yet He tells us this is the best way to live.

St Matthew wrote his gospel two generations after the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ; the Christians were suffering persecutions at times and in some places, they had finally been excluded from the synagogues which were their spiritual home, yet they continued to follow the way of Jesus by loving their enemies, praying for them and forgiving them.

And in a way, they were like the ‘children’ Jesus referred to. They lacked power or privilege and were unacceptable to many people in society. Dismissed from their families.

But the gospel has Jesus exclaiming that this was the plan of the Father, a most wonderful plan for those with the courage to accept it and follow it. He has placed in motion the Father’s plan by living it himself and now his disciples are living it and offering this way of life to anyone who would receive it.

And many did. The Church grew slowly and quietly through opposition and in doing so, they became humble and peaceful though they suffered. They looked into their hearts and knew the presence of God there. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God was there to sustain them.

Power is subtle and invasive, it undermines good people who increasingly believe in the rituals which are to lift minds to God yet sometimes become an end in themselves. The Pharisees were good leaders but they had transformed the living God into their own version of God which Jesus condemned since it laid burdens on people that they did not need.

The paradox of Jesus the Christ appears again. He states to all generations that people who are overburdened and struggling should look to him who is gentle and humble. Looking at him, being like him makes our burdens light not heavy.

So much heaviness in life has to do with attitudes that weigh us down. He has walked the same path, he knows, he says, ‘let go now, I will catch you.’

Columban Fr Gary Walker is currently living at the Columban house in Sandgate, Brisbane. 

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