ST BARNABAS ANGLICAN CHURCH - BLUFF, DURBAN
  • Home
    • Vestry Minutes and Annual Reports
    • Ministries
    • Annual Plans
    • Who's Who
    • Service outline for Sunday
    • Technology
    • Contact Us
  • Funeral Regulations
  • Rectors Page
  • Mission
    • Up Coming Events
    • Food for Thought
  • Sermons
  • Parish News
    • Articles
    • Parish Photo Gallery
  • History
  • Links
  • Weekly Pew Leaflet
  • Covid 19
  • Call to Prayer 2024
    • Fundraising
  • Popi/Paia
  • Disaster Crises Management

Allowing God to be God

7/10/2018

0 Comments

 
​ By Russell Pollitt SJ
 
God’s silence in the midst of life’s chaos is often a haunting reality. How many times do we wonder why God, when we feel at our most vulnerable, seems to shut the heavens and retreat into a disturbing silence? I read something recently which, against the backdrop of tragedy, I want to rehash, as some things need to be said over and over and over again.
 We feel the apparent absence of God more acutely when tragedy overwhelms us, death strikes the unexpected, the world around us seems hopeless or when we are confronted with the insignificance of our lives in the greater scheme of things. Guilt may gnaw at us because we know that we have got it horribly wrong and are now powerless to put it right. When these things happen, we feel abandoned by God, and, in the midst of our vulnerability, might even want to blame or curse God.
 Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s diaries (made public after her death) revealed a sobering truth that shocked many people: during the last sixty years of her life, she questioned God’s existence and had no affective experience of either the person or the existence of God. Despite this, everything in her life appeared to be focussed on and committed to God. She was selfless, altruistic and devout. She was a world icon for ‘proof’ that God existed, for faith. She was a quintessential modern saint – few dared dispute that. 
 Some might accuse Mother Teresa of being dishonest or incongruent. But let’s consider this. Her feeling or sense of God’s absence and the way she chose to live her life are not opposed to each other. Mother Teresa, because she had no affective or personal experience of God, could not manipulate God to fit her needs or vision. She could not control God. She received God on God’s terms, not hers. The initiative was with God. She allowed God to be God.
 Often we are led to believe that having a strong sense or feeling of God’s reality and action in our lives indicates robust faith. When confronted with those who struggle with faith and/or belief – especially in our most vulnerable moments – we are always tempted to say things like “this was God’s plan” or “just have faith”. Although, no doubt, said in sincerity, what these very often reveal is an ego or manipulation of God (and religion) for our own benefit. We need to guard against creating God in our own image and likeness and using that image to further our own interests or impose our feelings or worldview on God.  
 When we are powerless to manipulate our own image or experience of God, or use God for our own benefit, it is then that God can act on God’s terms. We simply don’t like that because we cannot resist manipulating religious experience and faith to make it work for ourselves. Despite convention, God’s seeming absence in the midst of life’s chaos or when we are at our most vulnerable, may just be God putting a stop to our all too arrogant egos. Paradoxically, God’s absence might just be the most pure moment we encounter God: on God’s terms.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Christ is Lord! 
    Christ is King!

     My name is Emilio Kasaba, rector of St Barnabas-Bluff. I enjoy a good debate and I love to see people grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    March 2020
    February 2020
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2014
    August 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011

    Categories

    All
    Break Up
    Community
    Confirmation
    Conflict
    Cut
    Discern
    Egoism
    Evangelism
    Faith
    Gifts
    Growth
    Listening
    Maturity
    Ordained
    Poor
    Prayer
    Priest
    Secret
    Send Away
    Service
    Static
    Tensions
    Time
    Triune God
    Understanding Patience
    Work

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
    • Vestry Minutes and Annual Reports
    • Ministries
    • Annual Plans
    • Who's Who
    • Service outline for Sunday
    • Technology
    • Contact Us
  • Funeral Regulations
  • Rectors Page
  • Mission
    • Up Coming Events
    • Food for Thought
  • Sermons
  • Parish News
    • Articles
    • Parish Photo Gallery
  • History
  • Links
  • Weekly Pew Leaflet
  • Covid 19
  • Call to Prayer 2024
    • Fundraising
  • Popi/Paia
  • Disaster Crises Management