Hi,
It’s unfortunate that you read such a lame book in the midst of your pain. The rabbi’s impotent god is not the God of Orthodox Judaism, let alone, the God of Christianity. His approach centers on us rather than on God.
We need to get reality straight here: first things first. We are not the measure of ourselves and we certainly are not the measure of God. We are not our context. God is. He came first and He comes first! We don’t pass judgment on God. God passes judgment on us! If we can’t comprehend His behavior, the weakness is in our comprehension—not in His behavior.
That being said—and in this “me-centered” culture of ours, it needs to be shouted from the roof tops—we begin with God—humbly. We acknowledge with John the Baptist that we are not worthy to unfasten His sandal straps. It is He who created us from nothing and keeps us in existence at every moment. It is He who gives life by right and calls it back at His determination. He is the infinite God who makes loveable all that He loves simply by loving it–and His love in infinite—without limit.
This poses a problem for us in that we have no immediate experience of anything but that which is finite. However, there is one instance in which this infinite God has revealed something of the infinite in a way we can somewhat comprehend: the passion of Jesus. God reveals more of Himself, hanging on a cross, than anywhere else. It is His ultimate self-revelation! It is on Good Friday that we see just how much He loves us. That God would allow Himself to suffer such agony at the hand of creatures that He created from nothing, tells us something of how impossible it is for us to wrap our minds around such love. We do know what it is to suffer. So we are enabled to get some sense of the magnitude of what we are considering—a sense not even open to the angels because they, unlike us, are not incarnate spirits. They have no bodies.
In the absence of space and time, we conclude here that suffering is not the worst that can happen to us—nor is death. Jesus is with us in these. Since He makes loveable that which He loves, the sight of Him hanging on the cross shows us how valuable His love has made us. He loves your stillborn child more than we can fully appreciate. Since He is the creator of time, He alone knows what time it truly is. What we don’t understand now, we can take comfort in the fact that He does. He is worth our trust.
I suggest that you read “Arise from Darkness” by Fr. Benedict Groeschel—available through
shop.catholic.com or 888 291 8000.
Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
