But for the Grace

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today can be approached from the praise of the psalmist who recognizes the steadfast Love of God as he asserts his faithfulness to God through his integrity and the idea that he walks on level ground. (perhaps living a balanced, grounded life?). The psalmist also petitions God that he not be swept away like the sinners who are bloodthirsty, violent and dishonest. The Book of Genesis contains two episodes where it appears that the Justice of God acts to cleanse His Creation of sin. The flood and the protection of life through Noah and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as related in the text for today are the two events. A Google search will reveal that many people have expressed their opinion about the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. The passage today from the Gospel of Matthew where the Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a situation where a king forgives the enormous debt of one of his slaves is a more welcome parable about the nature of God than the picture of destruction from Genesis. Our desire may be to choose one of these scenarios and reject the other because God should not be that violent or God is should not be gracious to those who will not take care of themselves. We lose comfort when God is not as our expectations declare He should be. The desire of God to be in relationship with us is the prequel to both these events. Jesus brings us into His understanding of the Father through parables. God invites Abraham into His plan to encourage the taking up of the cause of humanity to God as the psalmist does but as advocate for all humanity, those who hold to their integrity and those, more realistic, who understand that their place of life before God rests entirely on Divine mercy.