The First Commandment

Let's take a moment and think. About God the Father. First person of the Blessed Trinity.

          Probably the greatest mistake that many Catholics make ( again from deliberately misleading catechism) is to have a false picture of what God is, what God wills and how God acts.

   The popular notion is that God is an absentee landlord, yeh He did a great job of creating us and the world, and the stars and the flowers etc. but now it is up to us to look after things, do what we do and God can glance down from his big fluffy cloud once in a while and gave a paternalistic smile as we scurry about being busy. Then when our time has come we will float up to heaven on a soft miasma of light where everything  will basically be like earth only nicer and without nasty smells.
    God, Creator of the universe is reduced to a doting and over indulgent father who loves his kids no matter what they do. Think about that.  Many of us can recall instances, where we have been in a restaurant or on a plane, cinema, out shopping etc and watched unruly kids, creating noise, making a mess, giving cheek or creating a nuisance of themselves. In these cases we look around for their parent and if we should happen to see a male figure smiling benevolently at his little darlings creating havoc, our first thought is not "isn't he a good father." No our first thought is, "why doesn't he do something?" and if the torture persists we may come to the conclusion that something is lacking in his parenting skills, in other words he is not a good father.
   Why do we think this?  Why?  Perhaps it is  that inherent in us is a template of what constitutes a good father.  The traditional characteristics of a father are those of someone who loves their children, teaches them by example the benefits of work, responsibility, commitment, courage and the need for order and boundaries. The father should be the one to point out errors or mistakes, reward good behaviour and censure ( sometimes punish) bad behaviour, to teach his children right from wrong. That is what we expect from a good father. Why then are the rules different for God the Father? Surely Almighty God, from whom fatherhood has its being, should be the ultimate template of love, mercy, respect and justice?
      Does God the Father love us? Of course he does. His love for his creatures surpasses words, it is immeasurable, showing itself forth in the willing  sacrifice of His only Son, the second person of the Trinity. The offering of his Son was the ultimate expression of his mercy for us, the death and resurrection of Christ redeeming our fallen nature.
    Does God the Father give us rules and boundaries? Yes , the ten commandments, the prophets, His Son, the Church. All of these are signposts, mapping out the journey of service, of commitment , of courage we must undertake to reach our goal, God.
   Will God judge us? Yes , be in no doubt that each of us will have to answerable to the Father for all that we have done. Time and time again in scripture we have the theme of the God of justice,  Our Lord constantly refers to judgement for those called to follow God,the sifting of the wheat and the chaff, the dividing of the sheep and the goats. Just as the child stands in front of their father when they have done wrong, so will it be when we stand before the Father and are held to account.

      How many Catholics are fooled into imagining a  fictitious reality?  They put God at arms length, they attempt to expel Him ( a ridiculous notion!) out into space/ another dimension. Having done that they then seek to diminish the divinity of His Son, one who walked amongst us.

  The First Commandment states:
" I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image...."

     So when we think of God whom do we think of? Is it the true God, first person of the Blessed Trinity or our own personnal diety tailored to our lifestyle? Our own graven image?