Power and Providence

The psalmist in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today praises the majesty of God’s rule. One vision of our relationship with God is that of Creator/Ruler of the Universe. This is a contemplation which leads to praise as we do not have to push our senses to take in the beauty and glory of the created world and hopefully the goodness and kindness of the people who live in the world. The call of Isaiah from being a pious observing believer by God through an overwhelming experience of Presence is described today in the text from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Friar Jude Winkler reminds us that our response to such experience of Presence is usually, like Isaiah, one which seeks both to be drawn to the encounter with the Divine and to become aware of our deep unworthiness and seek to move back from the Eternal One. The passage today from the Gospel of Matthew, which was written to a Christian audience with a Jewish heritage who were being expelled from the synagogues, also presents a tension between two directions. We are compelled to follow Jesus by the witness of His Life which we trust is the path of Life and yet our Teacher advises us that we will expect to live all that He knows including the rejection and persecution for the words and actions we proclaim by our lives. In addition, Jews of Jesus time were aware of Gehenna where the religious commentary of the day suggested that sinners who turned away from God would find eternal suffering. George Butterfield understands that Jesus promise that our relationship with Him and His Father who is Our Father would be the Provident and intimate guide for our journey toward the Kingdom and away from those occasions which lead to Gehenna.