The Three Things

"In Acts 17, St. Paul addressed the people of Athens and warned them against the worship of false gods by human hands. He introduced them to the one true God in whom we live, move, and have our being. While some believed his message, others doubted and rejected it."

Why do people make gods? Same in Paul's day as today: people want to HAVE God.

Yes, people often want to BE God, but that's easily washed away. Any thoughtful person cannot avoid the immediate, inescapable conclusion that I am not God. That's the second of the three things we know for sure. There is a God. That's the first thing.

The sun rose this morning, I brushed my teeth, You exist and you are so different from me and yet exactly the same. To say God does not exist is merely to abuse and torture logic. The smallest child knows this.

I chuckle to myself as I watch the sunrise clouds shot through with fifty shades of blinding red which I could not name, let alone conceive nor create ... I chuckle and say quietly to the sunrise 'Now You are just showing off!' No God? Absurd.

The second thing which we know for sure: I am not God. Usually when people say to me 'There is no God,' they mean, 'If I cannot BE God, then I will pretend that there is NONE.' Not sinful in itself. Just a toddler's petulance. Adorable in its way, like a toddler can be, as long as it surrenders to maturity. Children do not crave reason nor argument (though they try to reason, and they appear to argue). If proof were what children desired, a sentence or two would suffice. Step through that locked door (of the upper room). Conceive of a new shade of red (for the sky at sunrise). Create for me an ant. Not a facsimile of an ant, just a single ant complete. Simple for the Creator. Impossible for the created.

I am not God. We know that for sure.We know so few things For Sure. We should cling to the few we have and never let go. Three things, to be precise. Everything else that we 'know' decreases in certainty exponentially with distance from those three.

(1) There is a God. (2) I am not It. Simple to say, challenging to accept in every minute of every day. Why? People manufacture warehouses packed with gods not because God is insufficient or absent. 'If I cannot BE God, then I shall HAVE God.'

Can you guess the third of the three certainties?

Torah tells us that on Sinai, Moses asked, 'What is your name?' God replied, 'ehyeh ’ăšer ’ehyeh' I am what will be. God does not say 'I will not tell you my name, because you cannot possess Me.' God is saying, 'It is not possible to tell you my name, and also you cannot possess Me.'

Even if He chose to throw that ball, we cannot catch it. It would be like throwing us a piano, or Saturn, or a galaxy. "Throw the ball to me!" "I cannot," says God. That's not how this ball works. "But I really, really want the ball!" (And some stomping of the feet). "I know. I knew you wanted it from before I created the ball, and before I created you. I have known this (and all things) always. Oh, also, I have the ball, and you, and all things, and all times .... I have them well in hand, and under control. The universe, and the ball, and you are precisely where they need to be right now and always. Thanks for wanting to help run the universe, but I have it well in hand."

"Then I shall make a god money, and a god power, and I shall wrap myself in the god pride. I will HAVE these gods!

"Adorable," says God. IF and ONLY IF (in mathematical notation: IFF) ... we use that immaturity to struggle through to maturity. Struggle with a toddler's energy and determination. Push with the strength of Spring and fresh life! But push always toward God, and struggle always toward God. When you feel God distant .... guess who moved?

Figured out that third certainty yet?

If I cannot BE God, and I cannot HAVE God, then what is left? God LOVES me.

I cannot have God, but I can choose to let God have me

Idolitry is not wrong because it makes God jealous or mad. It is wrong because it is backwards. It is fundamentally disordered. We cannot possess, but we can be loved. And struggling to BE or to HAVE merely frustrates and inverts God's stated Order and Will.

I cannot BE or HAVE, but I can be had (by God). How wonderful a feeling when I set down my chisel (with which I was frenetically fashioning an idol for myself, like money or title or authority over people)... and collapse back into the arms of God for perfect repose. God loves me. Astonishing. Shocking, actually.

"God, You go ahead and run the universe, and work your Plan, and light the path for my feet... I am exhausted with all these gods I spent all day chiseling. And none of them is very good. None of them is the least bit satisfying. I am going to bed. You take over, since You're going to be up all night anyway. Because You are God."

God loves me. Of all the people to love! Me?! God no better options? Me?

And all that's required is for me to will it. Shocking. Mind bending.

I have an idea! How about: "YES!! I accept. Quick, before You change Your Mind!

YES. I accept Your Divine Love. Today. Right now. Before You have a chance to reconsider what appears to me a patently ridiculous proposition. I accept Your Love. I cannot catch the ball, but I accept the Holy Spirit. Come on in! Possess me completely. Today. Right now! Fill me up and top me off. Leave not one millimeter of space in me for anything else."

God Loves me. That's the third certainty. (1) There is a God. (2) I am not God. (3) God loves me. Everything else is a bit sketchy. But those three things we know for sure.

Now, being loved is not a nonstop picnic. Just ask the Jews how much fun it is being His Chosen People. God is pretty tough on his friends. But I can endure a life of challenge, IFF it is simultaneously a life of being loved completely. Ne permittas me separari a Te! (Never permit me to be separated from You).

Keep my eyes fixed on Christ. Be possessed. Forget possessing. Don't get things backward.

One of the readings at our wedding mass was the well-pleased man. "Next year, I shall tear down this barn and build a bigger one for all my grain." You fool. This very night your very life shall be demanded of you! Hold the gifts God gives you very lightly. Never deceive yourself about what you possess, or even can possess. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

There is a God. I am not God. God loves me.Tomorrow is ascension Thursday. "Men of Galilee, why do you stand there looking at the sky?" (Well... because Christ just ascended in front of us, for starters). But that's not really the question. Why are you standing, not moving?

Christ was unambiguous: love one another as I have loved you. That was my favorite Thursday of the year a few weeks ago. Maundy Thursday as in 'mandatum.' The command. Not a suggestion. My favorite day of the year.

At the Ascension, the angel asks: why not get going now? Now is good for me. My calendar is open right now. Or at the Transfiguration: Peter... I don't need you to waste time erecting three tents (one for Elijah, one for Moses, one for Christ). I know you just saw me transfigured, but stop loitering.

I love Peter because he was pretty flawed. He got more than half the questions that Christ asked him wrong, and still Christ loved him. Gives me hope. I can't imagine me climbing even halfway up to Peter's level of flawed. Get walking! Stop diddling around putting up tents and making idols. Bring people to the Holy Spirit.God, give me peace with Your Will. And though it seems absurd to me, yes, please love me completely. I accept!