“Sin is something that changes God into a projection of our guilt, so that we don’t see the real God at all; all we see is some kind of judge. God (the whole meaning and purpose and point of our existence) has become a condemnation of us. God has been turned into Satan, the accuser of man, the paymaster, the one who weighs our deeds and condemns us…It is very odd that so much casual Christian thinking should be worship of Satan, that we should think of the punitive satanic God as the only God available to the sinner. It is very odd that the view of God as seen from the church should ever be simply the view of God as seen from hell. For damnation must be just being fixed in this illusion, stuck forever with the God of the Law, stuck forever with the God provided by our sin (155-156).” https://www.americamagazine.org/herbert-mccabe-faith-within…
I found this quote as someone in a Catholic discussion group was discussing The Sacrament of Reconciliation, and I recalled how Father Michael H. Hull had explained it to us in his homily on the Prodigal Son. Someone mentioned it sounded like what Fr. Herbert McCabe had described as well. What’s funny about this is I realized what McCabe describes above from reading Dean Koontz’s LIFE EXPECTANCY, which features a sociopathic kidnapper–as long as you do what he says, you won’t get killed or tortured, but you’ll never be sure whether what you’re doing is right for his expectations. I realized I was treating God like that, unknowingly. It was one of the biggest breakthroughs of my spiritual life as an adult Catholic. I think perhaps too many of us worship God as the accuser, whether we realize it or not. It’s why we can’t love as we should, and we begin accusing others. Too much fear and too much pretense of control we and our neighbor don’t have.
Photo by icon0.com on Pexels.com
The Lewis Crusade 