English EspaƱol Mary Immaculate
Catholic Church / Pacoima, CA

Possible Errors in the Image of God

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

“The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.”Ps. 15

  • A kindly God who forgives everything.
  • A God who asks nothing of us.
  • A God who only wants our happiness, without caring about sin.
  • A God who does not speak of condemnation.
  • A firefighter God, to whom you only turn when you need something.
  • A “friendly” God, close like just another person, whom you don’t respect, with whom you do whatever you want, treating Him as an equal.
  • A bad God who wants to punish (I haven’t met anyone with this idea).
  • A fragile, hypersensitive God who is easily offended by everything.
  • A weak and needy God, as if He lacks firmness, strength, and wisdom.
  • A God whom we can easily deceive.
  • A God like a rich person who has preferences and makes distinctions.
  • A God responsible for everything, including death and misfortunes.
  • A God who gives material goods and also takes them away.
  • A God like a genie in a lamp whose mission is to fulfill my wishes.
  • A God who doesn’t need my collaboration for anything.
  • An abstract, unknown, hidden, and distant God, detached from this world.

Perhaps you can create your own version of erroneous ideas about God. In reality, all concepts of God are erroneous if they are not based on the revelation that He has made of Himself, no matter how good or logical they may seem to us; each person might imagine Him in a different way.

To know God, we should not rely on our own minds, which Saint Teresa referred to as the “mad of the house,” because any kind of madness can come to mind, and each person will experience this differently. To know God, we should not invent anything, nor listen to the inventions of others; we should only turn to the revelation that He made of Himself, which we have in Scripture. This way, we avoid creating a God in our own image, tailored to our own conceptions and prejudices, which are conditioned by the time and place in which we were born.

Many have fallen into this error of fabricating a God in their own image, with their own conceptions, from which they may even condemn God. They do this because, with their very limited knowledge, they consider it as if it were the whole truth and believe that God is unjust, cruel, and should do things differently, etc. This act of making a God to fit their own measure also leads others to create a religion in their own way, taking what they like and discarding what they don’t.

The truth about God is found in Scripture, properly interpreted with the guidance of the Spirit that Christ gave to His Church. Thus, we can find God in the catechism and the preaching of the Church as revealed by Christ, who is the fullness of revelation. A God who loves us so much that He assumed our human condition to show us the path to salvation, to reclaim the paradise lost by sin. We receive and benefit from His love by knowing Him, obeying Him, believing in Him, and taking the path of life.

St. Gregory the Great | September 3

Saint Gregory the Great lived in a most turbulent time. There were devastating episodes of plague, the sacking of Rome and the breakdown of strong Roman rule, invasions by Lombards and Franks, floods, and a widening gap between imperial Byzantium and the Roman Church.

Born around 540 into a noble Roman family, Saint Gregory was probably trained in law, and started his public service as a Prefect of Rome. However, upon the death of his father, he converted his family home to monastery, where he resided as a monk. He built six more monasteries in Sicily and one in Rome.

Often called the father of the medieval papacy and Apostle of the English, Saint Gregory was named Pope by acclamation in 590. Although he was reluctant to assume this post, preferring the cloistered life, his accomplishments were many. He was an extremely capable manager of Church estates and tenants and is known for his reform of the liturgy. He was instrumental in the consolidation of papal power and led the fight against the many heresies promoted by small Christian groups at the time. Through his prolific correspondence he oversaw monastic life, curtailing the power of grasping bishops, correcting abuses, and enforcing discipline. He was particularly concerned with the conversion of England, sending 40 monks from his monastery to evangelize there.

Saint Gregory died in 604 and was sainted immediately. He is one of four key doctors of the Western Church. Among the miracles attributed to him is a Eucharistic miracle in which the woman who prepared the bread for communion laughed at the consecration, denying the transformation of the bread to the real presence of Jesus. Saint Greogry prayed for the Lord to show the congregation the truth and confirm their belief. The piece of bread transformed into a piece of flesh and then returned to bread, reforming the woman, and strengthening the faith of all. St. Gergory the Great, pray for us!

Weekly Readings

Sunday: Dt 4:1-2, 6-8/Ps 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5 1a/Jas 2:1-5/Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27/Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Monday: 1 Cor 2:1-5/Ps 119:97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102/Lk 4:16-30
Tuesday: 1 Cor 2:10b-16/Ps 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13ab, 13cd-14/Lk 4:31-37
Wednesday: 1 Cor 3:1-9/Ps 33:12-13, 14-15, 20-21/Lk 4:38-44
Thursday: 1 Cor 3:18-23/Ps 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6/Lk 5:1-11
Friday: 1 Cor 4:1-5/Ps 37:3-4, 5-6, 27-28, 39-40/Lk 5:33-39
Saturday: 1 Cor 4:66-15/Ps 145:17-18, 19-20, 21/Lk 6:1-5
Next Sunday: Is 35:4-7a/Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10 (1B)/Jas 2:1-5/Mk 7:31-37

Observances for the Week

Sunday: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Monday: Labor Day
Tuesday: St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
Next Sunday: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time; Grandparents’ Day