Co parenting as Work of God

The Roman Catholic Lectionary for today offers some different models of our relationship with God. The passage from the Book of the Prophet Hosea is described by Friar Jude Winkler as comparing our relationship with God to that of a father and his child. This is a change from the main metaphor of Hosea in which the relationship is compared to the marriage relationship. One special feature of the parent child relationship is the desire of the parent to attend to the healthy development of the child so that all the joy fullness of life possible will be the life experience of the child. The response of parent, like God, to transgressions is assist the child through the consequences of the poor decision with the goal of getting back to the development of a full life. The description of the attention of God to the development of the people of Israel is the assurance that God desires to return them to the state of awareness of the face and hand of God in their lives which is proclaimed by the psalmist today. One verse from the Gospel of Matthew today “the labourer deserves his keep” (Matthew 10:10) resonates in several places throughout the Christian Testament. One numerical relationship is in comparison with John 10:10 and the fullness of life which Jesus brings when we are in communion with Him. The Theology of Work project takes the message that we need to avoid making our paycheck the object of our work as it may refocus our attention at work towards ourselves when the mission of this Gospel text is to bring the proclamation of the existence of the Kingdom of God to others through healing and being present to the people we encounter. Dennis Hamm SJ touches on the requirement that we readdress three components of social relationships; interdependent, dependent and independent. The requirement to travel light on our journey and have time for important relationships with people will mean that our preparations, plans and extra sandals, tunics, and staff to be independent are too much about our agenda and not about the plan God our Father has for us. We need to be interdependent with our fellow human beings and in our relationship with them we will be open to deepen our dependence on Providence for the road map of our journey and the sustenance which keeps us working to develop others in our role as co parent with God.