Saturday of the 2nd Week of Lent
Mic 7:14-15, 18-20
Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
Once more have pity on us…
Growing up, my mind’s eye often saw God as a judge, whom I would have to face when my time on Earth ended. I always carried about me this fear of being made accountable for all the wrongs I have committed during my lifetime.
This was the view I got whenever I read the Old Testament.
Yet, the vision of God in today’s first reading is totally different; it shows our God as one who is totally merciful. He is someone who took “delighting in showing mercy”. This image of God blew my previous understanding of God in the Old Testament.
This prayer of forgiveness in Micah is in line with the image of God in the story of the Prodigal Son in the Gospel of today, which appeals to me. It also struck me that, perhaps, the image of God did not change between the Old and New Testaments. Instead, this loving side of our God had been there all along.
My experience of God has changed with this realisation.
Instead of seeing God as one waiting to punish, I see that God has always been loving. In my mind, His commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai were not meant to regulate us with a whip in hand. Instead, these commandments, and the two that Jesus taught us — to love God with all our hearts and all our minds, as well as to love our neighbours as ourselves — essentially come from the same place; that of love, and protection.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Paul Wee)
Prayer: Help us Father, to remember that everything You desire for us comes from loving us.
Thanksgiving: Thank You for loving us first, Father.
OXYGEN 
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