#Who God is

[momentsbeforemass]

Not able

Today’s Gospel is weird.

When we think about Jesus’ public ministry, there are certain things that pretty much always show up.

Classic prophet stuff, and more. Calling people back to God. Miracles. Healing. Reaching out to the marginalized. Teaching people about God.

It may be put together in different ways. But most, if not all, of it will be there.

Then there’s today’s Gospel. Which ends with this –

“So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.”

Let’s be clear, the Gospel is saying this – about God. As in “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” As in “All things came to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be.” This the all-powerful Creator, in the midst of His creation.

So how is it that God can’t do something?

For the simple reason that God will never contradict His own nature. God can’t, because God won’t. That’s not who God is.

As Billy Graham put it, “God will not force Himself upon us against our will. If we want God’s love, we need to believe in Him. We need to make a definite, positive act of commitment and surrender to the love of God. No one can do it for us.”

That’s what we’re seeing here. This is the nature of God. And not just in the New Testament.

If you and I are wondering why we’re not seeing more of God in our lives? If we’re wondering where God is right now?

This is going to be a big part of it. Because this is the inescapable first step to receiving all that God wants to give us. To receiving God’s love.

To be clear, this is not a one and done. Our commitment and surrender to the love of God must be done daily. This is the first step to a living relationship with God.

In case you ever wondered why the Church is so big on starting the day with prayer.

Today’s Readings

[zelkams-art]

in all timelines in all possibilities only you can show me this

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

Love it when Rolling Stone puts out an article about the 25 most influential internet creators and I've only heard of 7 of them

[problemnyatic]

when will we talk about the willful helplessness epidemic on here. So many people on this god forsaken website demand to have any and all things that exist outside their personal experiences directly, personally pre-chewed and spoonfed to them. And when you do, they'll then ask for you to swallow for them, too, because, you see, in THEIR experience..,

[dramatic-dolphin]

when we were studying the bible in literature class (so we have the context necessary for later works that reference the bible), i think we were at the book of jonah, and one of my classmates was studying the text very intently, and then looked up and earnestly said "professor, i don't understand the will of god"

the teacher was just like. well sadly i am a literature teacher and not a priest so i can't help you there. but if it helps, many people throughout history had the same problem.

[lgbtlunaverse]

The world exists in such a baffling state of simultaneous sex-aversion and sex-hegemony. Every social platform on the internet is trying to banish sex workers to the shadow realm but I can't post a tweet without at least two bots replying P U S S Y I N B I O. People are self-censoring sex to seggs and $3× but every other ad you see is still filled with half-naked women. Rightwingers want queer people arrested for so much as existing in the same postal code as a child and are also drumming up a moral panic about how teenage boys aren't getting laid enough. I feel like I'm losing my mind.

[lesbianralzarek]

"life doesnt get better, you just get stronger" does NOT include ages 11-17. life does in fact just get better from there. those years are dogshit. like, you do get stronger but its mostly just a factor of not being 11-17 anymore. positive thinking helps but it doesnt fix whatevers going on at 15, you have to brute force through that one raw

[stemmmm]

more people gotta try this shit where bill has not improved and will not change but he's just chilling so its fine probably. its great

[noelledeltarune]

EVERY SINGLE DAY there are MILLIONS of characters in their late 20s who get falsely accused of being father figures to teenagers when in reality the description of "weird older cousin" or "step-sibling that moved out before you were born" is 1000000x more apt

[edgebug]

the thing that sucks most about Joanne Rowling being a terf is that she is actively hurting real life trans people every day.

the second worst thing about joanne being a terf is that the Harry Potter intellectual property is So Much Larger than her. look at the credits for just one of the harry potter movies. every single one of those people put YEARS of time and effort and dare i say love into those films. think of all the people involved in theme park design and operation who put together the wizarding world park lands and detailed them so lovingly and fully

and yet even though the intellectual property of harry potter is so much larger than joanne, she's poisoned the whole well

i feel so. so immensely sorry for every person involved in the harry potter ip who isn't jkr. doubly sorry for every trans person involved. it's fucking sad

[doodledrawsthings]

i love being predictable

[momentsbeforemass]

What Jesus doesn’t say

Today’s Gospel is the story of Jesus walking on the water. With Peter trying to walk on the water. And failing.

So, Jesus pulls him into the boat. And afterwards says to Peter, “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Which is Jesus’ way of saying, “Why are you worrying? I’ve got this.”

The best part? What Jesus doesn’t say.

When Peter cries out for help, Jesus doesn’t say, “You know, Peter, you really need to get yourself together if you expect Me to help you.”

Jesus doesn’t say, “What have you done to deserve My help?”

Or “How many times am I going to have to do this?”

Or “What’s in it for Me?”

Jesus simply pulls Peter into the boat. Before He says anything.

Why is that the best part?

Because it shows us that Jesus isn’t keeping score.

Jesus isn’t looking at you or me or Peter, to see whether we deserve His love, His help.

Because if it was left to what we actually deserved, Peter would still be in the water.

Jesus is looking at us through His eyes of love. The same Love that’s looking for you.

Let’s be clear.

The Love that’s looking for you has nothing to do with who you are.

The Love that’s looking for you has everything to do with who He is.

Today’s Readings

[xamitras]

For many of years I had this tradition of drawing Wirt and the beast once a year to see how much I have improved, then depression hit in 2023 and couldn't continue, but it left so really amazing art in the process

[abookblog]

Ok look. I’m an Elder Millennial and I know we have our quirks but I honestly want to know something.

[spr0utsies]