WHAT KIND OF GOD DO YOU, ME, WE, BELIEVE IN ?

On this Thursday January 21, the Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, a 12 year old girl of faith and fidelity in the 4th Century A.D., who suffered death during the Roman persecutions of Emperor Diocletian, because she remained faithful to Christ, and whose very name Agnes is a version of the word agnus, meaning lamb; I celebrated the 8 am Mass at Sacred Heart Church, visted the Finance Office at the Diocesan Pastoral Center and then briefly with Msgr.. Kavanagh, before lunching with my friends Joe Gibson and retired Sac State professor, Dr. Bob Curry, at the One Step restaurant on Folsom Blvd., I assisted Rev. Fr. Brendan McKeefry, tonight at Our Lady of Assumption Church in Carmichael, with the Sacrament of First Reconciliation, participating in a delightful penance service emphasizing the love and forgiveness God has for sinners and hearing the Confessions of the young penitents. Much of the news the past nine days has been concentrated on the devastation of the Haitian Earthquake, with heartfelt concern, charity, and support for its victims. That is however, with a few egregious exceptions. One of the most nonsensical responses came from the Rev. Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club. Instead of preaching a message of compassion, mercy, empathy, for the Haitian people in their current affliction, Rev. Robertson chose to make an all but idiotic pronouncement, citing the earthquake as God's punishment and vengeance, for Haiti's pact with the Devil on August 14, 1791. Instead of proclaiming God's Love, mercy and forgiveness, which is the authentic theology of the Christian Gospel, he chose to spew a self determined sentence of judgementalism and accusations of evil, blanketedly upon the Haitians, as being the reason for the earthquake they have endured. And this is not the first time he has uttered such misstatements of the sacred Truth of the Living and True God, from his telecommunications pulpit. Sadly, some of the hidden agenda of these bizarre screeds may be more than a little prejudice and disdain for Catholicism. In the 1980's he and others all but embraced the American Catholic Church during a presidential election campaign over our teaching on abortion, only to be among the first to castigate the US Catholic Bishops just days after the election on their Pastoral Letter on the Economy. A dozen years ago, I had a near encounter with Rev. Robertson myself, while I was Pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, in Oroville. All because I chose to stand with my parishioners and the other Christian church Pastors and their Oroville congregations, in support of a local high school Valedictorian's right to make reference to God in his graduation address and in opposition to his being forced to sit down and being silenced instead. Within days of speaking out and offering our parish pulpit to the graduate to deliver his address from, on the Sunday after the incident, one of the other Christian Pastor's called informing me Rev. Pat Robertson and the 700 Club were wanting to interview me on their program, intrigued that the Catholic priest in Oroville was publicly supporting a Nazarene Church high school graduate. My prayer and discernment told me not to pursue the offer, given uncertainly as to how my words might be used to reflect on Catholic-Christianity negatively. The point of this blog column is to pose the question, What understanding of God do YOU, ME, WE, believe in ? A Universal God who is a sin counter, waiting to reek punishment and pain on human beings, or an Eternal God of Life and Love, full of mercy and compassion, seeking to heal and forgive sinners ? I believe in the latter vision in union with St. John the Evangelist, described as the Beloved Disciple of Jesus Christ, who proclaims, "GOD IS LOVE". And I pray that all Believers in God, especially Ministers of the Gospel, such as the Rev. Pat Robertson, will undergo the call to continuing conversion of heart and mind; to discover the Living and True God of All Creation, the God of Our Salvation, not Condemnation. To underscore my sincerity as an ecumenist, let me close with one last experience I shared today. A very warm, cordial, friendly, and collegial, introductory telephone conversation with Rev. Barbara Horikoshi Firebaugh, the Pastor of Faith First United Methodist Church, at 36th and J Streets, whose congregation with whom I will worship this Christian Unity Week Ecumenical Sunday January 24, at 11 a.m. She has kindly invited me to speak to her congregation as a part of their Sunday Service.......... May God's Love, Forgiveness, Fidelity,
Unity, Dwell in the Home of Your Hearts,
Fr. Troy