God the Father... Is He Weak?

Oh brother, here we go again...

I once served as a Confirmation sponsor for an adult going through the RCIA process at a local parish.  For anyone who takes the Catholic faith seriously and has studied a thing or two about it, it is not atypical for such a person to be disappointed in the "catechesis" that accompanies the process.  I don't mean to imply that the RCIA itself is bad in itself.  Rather, those who teach it all too often seem to be either ignorant of the Church's teachings, or worse, they have an agenda that seeks to undermine the magisterium.  Case in point - At the last RCIA gathering I had the "pleasure" to take part in (a meal that served as the only formal "mystagogical" element), a written reflection was given to all of us who had been a part of the past year's group.  The title was something like, "My God is Weak."  Naturally, I began to wonder if I would be able to keep down the food I'd just enjoyed.  What's more, I was angry, honestly not surprised.  Throughout the process, I'd learned that one of the deacons in charge of catechizing the group wasn't sure how many books Catholics had in their Bibles vs. Protestants.  He only knew we had a different number, but not who had more or less (nor did he know why).  I'd also "learned" from a lay catechist (and member of parish council) that the mysteries of the Rosary are prayed seasonally (the Joyful Mysteries prayed around Advent, Sorrowful around Lent, etc.).  But this last reflection... that my God is weak?  That won the prize for most ridiculous statement of the year.  Contrast that with what the Pope said in this week's Wednesday audience on the topic of God the Father (as found on Zenit)...

His omnipotence is not expressed in violence, it is not expressed in the destruction of every adverse power as we would like, but is expressed in love, in mercy, in forgiveness, in accepting our freedom and in the untiring call to conversion of heart, in an attitude that is only apparently weak – God seems weak, if we think of Jesus Christ who prays, who lets himself be killed. An apparently weak attitude, consisting of patience, gentleness and love, shows that this is the true way of being powerful![...] 

Only one who is truly powerful can endure evil and show compassion; only one who is truly powerful can fully exercise the power of love. And God, to whom all things belong because all things were made by Him, reveals his strength by loving everyone and everything, in a patient waiting for the conversion of us men, whom he wants to have as children. God awaits our conversion.  God's all-powerful love knows no bounds, so much so that "he did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us" (Rom 8:32). The omnipotence of love is not that of the power of the world, but that of total gift, and Jesus, the Son of God, reveals to the world the true omnipotence of the Father, giving his life for us sinners. This is the real, authentic and perfect divine power: to respond to evil with good, to insults with forgiveness, to murderous hatred with the love that gives life. Then evil is really defeated, because washed by the love of God; then death is finally defeated, because transformed into the gift of life. God the Father raises the Son: death, the great enemy (cf. 1  Cor 15:26), is swallowed up and deprived of its poison (cf. 1 Cor15.54-55), and we, freed from sin, can access our reality of being God's children. 

So when we say "I believe in God the Father Almighty," we express our faith in the power of the love of God who in his Son dead and risen defeats hatred, evil, sin and opens us to eternal life, that of children who want to be always in the "Father's House". To say “I believe in God the Father Almighty”, in his power, in his way of being Father, is always an act of faith, of conversion, of transformation of our mind, of all our affection, of our entire way of life.

 As usual, I'm with the Pope.  After all, God's omnipotence is necessarily one of His divine attributes.

Stay tuned for more on poor catechesis.  I've got the itch to write a long overdue post on the topic of Confirmation retreats for teens as well.