Sometimes religious art, no matter how beautiful, has fostered the idea of a severe God, forgetting about the Merfiful Father that Jesus announced
Among many believers is quite alive, at least in certain cultural and ecclesial environments, the idea that the difficulties that come our way throughout life are tests sent by God. Tests, big or small, with which, supposedly, the Lord wants to examine the strength of our faith. According to this belief, an illness, an accident, a relationship that ends, the loss of a loved one and any other misfortune that comes upon us are exams posed by God to gauge the strength of our faith. If these tribulations steal our peace and make us doubt of His love for us («Lord, if you love me, why do you allow this to happen to me? Maybe you don't love me! »), then it is a sign that our faith is weak and brittle. If, on the contrary, setbacks, calamities and even tragedies fail to shake our confidence in His love, then we can relax: we passed the exam.
This conviction, no matter how ingrained it is in our way of thinking, is not theologically sound, it does not help us to live a healthy spiritual life, and it is very doubtful that it has never produced any good fruits. In fact, we would do well to discard it.
What image of the divine presupposes the idea that the worries of life are tests that God sends to us to prove the health of our faith? First, the image that of an ignorant God, who does not know us, who ignores what is in our hearts, and has to try us in order to discover it. Secondly, that of an insecure and vain God, who needs to double check constantly our loyalty to Him. And, thirdly, that of a cruel and twisted God, for the means he uses to confirm again and again that we have not turned our backs on Him is, paradoxically, making us suffer. Before this idea of God, perhaps the real problem would not be that we might lose our faith, but in fact that we would preserve it, because then it would be an unhealthy and servile faith, faith in this childish God, doubtful, narcissistic and unloving. This God would resemble more a mad tyrant (like Camus’ Caligula, for instance) than the abba that Jesus experienced, represented by the father of the prodigal son, the good shepherd who went out in search of the lost sheep or the compassionate father who «makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous» (Mt 5:45).
The God who tests us, in short, contradicts the merciful Father that Jesus announced. Therefore, whatever response we may give to the thorny problem of evil and suffering in the world, it is certain that with the Gospel in our hands we cannot attribute it to God.
There is a perspective that is more fitting with what the gospels tell us: that of the God who sustains and accompanies us in the midst of the tribulations and sufferings that life itself—that fragile and rugged life, the only possible in this world—entails. Instead of assuming that God is the author of suffering, let us assume that the human condition is fragile and exposed to pain and disappointment, but that, in the midst of all the storms, God walks by our side, offering us his unconditional love and support.
Perhaps to some people the God that emerges from this second perspective will seem weaker, less majestic and omnipotent than the absolute sovereign who put us to the test by sending us tribulations all the time. And yet, if we stop to meditate on it for a moment, we will soon realize that the God who chose to show his greatness through his tenderness, his care and his love for us, sustaining us in our pain and accompanying us until the end, is the one Jesus of Nazareth announced and prayed to. He is also the only one worth believing in.
This conviction, no matter how ingrained it is in our way of thinking, is not theologically sound, it does not help us to live a healthy spiritual life, and it is very doubtful that it has never produced any good fruits. In fact, we would do well to discard it.
What image of the divine presupposes the idea that the worries of life are tests that God sends to us to prove the health of our faith? First, the image that of an ignorant God, who does not know us, who ignores what is in our hearts, and has to try us in order to discover it. Secondly, that of an insecure and vain God, who needs to double check constantly our loyalty to Him. And, thirdly, that of a cruel and twisted God, for the means he uses to confirm again and again that we have not turned our backs on Him is, paradoxically, making us suffer. Before this idea of God, perhaps the real problem would not be that we might lose our faith, but in fact that we would preserve it, because then it would be an unhealthy and servile faith, faith in this childish God, doubtful, narcissistic and unloving. This God would resemble more a mad tyrant (like Camus’ Caligula, for instance) than the abba that Jesus experienced, represented by the father of the prodigal son, the good shepherd who went out in search of the lost sheep or the compassionate father who «makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous» (Mt 5:45).
The God who tests us, in short, contradicts the merciful Father that Jesus announced. Therefore, whatever response we may give to the thorny problem of evil and suffering in the world, it is certain that with the Gospel in our hands we cannot attribute it to God.
There is a perspective that is more fitting with what the gospels tell us: that of the God who sustains and accompanies us in the midst of the tribulations and sufferings that life itself—that fragile and rugged life, the only possible in this world—entails. Instead of assuming that God is the author of suffering, let us assume that the human condition is fragile and exposed to pain and disappointment, but that, in the midst of all the storms, God walks by our side, offering us his unconditional love and support.
Perhaps to some people the God that emerges from this second perspective will seem weaker, less majestic and omnipotent than the absolute sovereign who put us to the test by sending us tribulations all the time. And yet, if we stop to meditate on it for a moment, we will soon realize that the God who chose to show his greatness through his tenderness, his care and his love for us, sustaining us in our pain and accompanying us until the end, is the one Jesus of Nazareth announced and prayed to. He is also the only one worth believing in.
