God??? a comment and a response.

Meg wrote an interesting comment to my offering "God???" and I responded...you may enjoy the conversation....join in if you wish...I love a little bit of theology from time to time...Fr. Paul

Blogger Meg said...

I enjoyed reading this post. I love thoughts that require a fork and steak knife to get through and internalize.... and this coming from a vegan!
God's Will leaves me wondering about Free will. What say you about our free will and God's omnipotent nature? Doesn't omnipotence negate free will?
Warmly,
Megan from West Virginia

I enjoyed reading this post. I love thoughts that require a fork and steak knife to get through and internalize.... and this coming from a vegan!
God's Will leaves me wondering about Free will. What say you about our free will and God's omnipotent nature? Doesn't omnipotence negate free will?
Warmly,
Megan from West Virginia

9:10 PM
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Blogger Fr. Paul said...

Hi Meg,
Thanks for your comment. When I think of God as "omnipotent" I try to see it in Biblical terms. In fact God is quite limited because of human will. We are free to be as mean, violent, hateful, prejudiced, dishonest and fraudulent as we wish to be...recent history is surely a witness to that.
In response to the nature of human nature, God cannot be anything but God. God is born, for instance, as a baby, homeless, and of an unwed mother, very poor and subject to the throes of all that befalls humanity. Ultimately he is put to death, and there is no intervention whatsoever. He is utterly helpless...isn't that curious. Jesus really is just like us. But what make God "omnipotent" is that he uses the occasion of his death, to forgive us, love us and give us the gift that we never expected, especially after we treated him so...he gives us eternal life. In fact Jesus claims the gift for himself but then curiously gives it to all humanity whether we want it or not and whether we deserve it or not.
What makes the gift "omnipotent" to me is that the gift is for EVERYONE...because ALL sins are forgiven. Even before we knew that we had done sinning at all.
We knew something was wrong...after all, there is lots of bloodshed...there still is. There was cheating, lying, and human suffering in generous supply.
But Jesus said...."I have a better idea...why don't you love each other?" We're still working on that...because being free...we'd somehow rather kill each other off...go figure.
Anyway...our job is to proclaim the good news...He is risen. We are forgiven. Love God. Love one another...please!
Godspeed to you Meg...and enjoy the veggies!
Paul