Year A
Proverbs 31:10-13.19-20.30-31
Psalm 128:1-2.3.4-5 (R. 1a)
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Matthew 25:14-30
TO FEAR GOD OR LOVE GOD
TO FEAR GOD OR LOVE GOD
Last week we realized that the fear of God is closely linked with Judgment, and it is God who judges, because Love is the Judge of all things. We also realized that, the greatest judgment on earth was on the Cross, where God sitting on his throne, judges man, all in the person of Christ. Where man and God is completely unite, God seek man as man and man is invited to seek God as God. This is all that Love is. When I seek myself, I love no more, but when I seek the other as other, know the other as other, I love.
Today’s readings give us the opportunity to look further into the Love that flows from the fear of God, namely, Judgment. In the first reading, we hear of the qualities of a good wife, and how she gives account about her qualities. In the Gospel, those given the talent were asked to give account of it later and the faithful over little where asked to enter the joy of the master, while those who wicked and slothful was cast into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Finally, in the second reading, St. Paul cautioned us about the judgment to come.
St. Francis of Sales
"The measure of Love, is Love without measure"
Love burns beyond all measure because Love often knows no measure. Love does not sleep, because Love is not slothful. I repeat, when I seek myself, I love no more. Love is seeking the other as other. To seek God as God is to Love God. I repeat, to seek Love as Love is to Love Love. How can we Love Love, if not to go beyond measure for him, and live as Love is.
That is all what the fear of God consist of. In fact to appropriate and assimilate Love is to fear God. If God is Love, Love belongs to God alone. So if we are to Love, we are called to thus appropriate and assimilate Love. To appropriate is to make something your own, and to assimilate is to make the same or become similar to something. So to appropriate Love is to make Love our own, and to assimilate Love is to become like Love. In short, man who was created in the image and likeness of God, is to appropriate and assimilate God. I repeat, Man who was created in the image and likeness of Love, is to appropriate and assimilate Love.
That is what Love himself does, he appropriate and assimilate.
“You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have no winnowed”
When God willed to Create everything Good, he was unwilling to Create anything bad. When God willed to sow the good, he was unwilling to sow the bad. God is good, and no good farmer will sow a bad seed. All that God created he saw them as good, because he is a good, Creator, a good farmer, a good teacher, etcetera. Since evil is no part of what he sowed, or what he willed into existence, but he reap where he does not sow and gather where he has not winnowed, the evil that God did not sow as was a result of what he does not will for all that God wills is good, he came on the Cross to reap that evil he did not sow.
On the Cross, God did not just showed his love, but he appropriate and assimilate what he did not will, so that all evil was placed upon him. An atheist will then look at the Cross a see only man hanging there and say, “Theist believe that God is good but God is evil, other than that, God does not exist.” A theist will look at the Cross and see not only man hanging there but God also, and say; “God is Love.” To the atheist, on the Cross, God showed his ultimate failure to humans, God is weak, not all powerful as theist claim he is. To the theist, on the Cross, God showed his ultimate love to human, he sought man as man.
In short, on the Cross, in judgment, God becomes evil to those who do not fear him, those who do not understand that he has always been seeking them as they are, those who don’t believe that God wants to reap what he did not sow in them with his great harvesting tool, the Cross. However, to those who believe that God came to save them by harvesting what he did not sow in them, namely sin, with his Cross will see God as Good.
Perhaps the two thieves who were with him on the Cross can illustrate this very clear, sinners as they both where, God did not sowed that in them, but as he reap where he does not sow, he willed to reap that darkness in them so that they will become truly, children of the Light. The first thief who did not seek God as God and hence did not fear God saw only man suffering and said;
Luke 23:39
"Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
But the one who feared God and hence wanted to truly appropriate and assimilate Love, allowed God to appropriate and assimilate what he did not sow in Creation and in Man, rebuked his college telling him that the judgment of God is just and knowing what Jesus Christ has done for him by reaping what he did not sow in him said;
Luke 23:42
"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
The true sons of light, and sons of the day are those who have
appropriated and assimilated Love, and like the good wife work with willing
hands, or like the good and faithful servants, are faithful over a little and
are set over much to enter into the joy of the master. These are those who reap
where they did not sow. That is our calling as humans, we are called to reap
where we did not sow, to seek God as God and the other as other, to Love.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Make Love your own, become Love, Love is not lazy, Love never sleeps.
By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson.
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