English
EspañolDo not be afraid of God. He is not your judge but your Father. He is not your prosecutor, executioner, and undertaker. God, who created you, is the one most committed to you being truly “alive” and not “dead in life.” God is tender light and warm companionship. If you are afraid of God, something or someone is distorting him and withholding him from you. That someone, at times, could be yourself…
Text
“Conversation with the priest, in the internal forum, contributes to the formation of a correct judgment on what hinders the possibility of a fuller participation in the life of the Church and on what steps can foster it and make it grow.” (The Joy of Love, n.300) “I encourage the faithful who find themselves in complicated situations to speak confidently with their pastors or with other lay people whose lives are committed to the Lord. They may not always encounter in them a confirmation of their own ideas or desires, but they will surely receive some light to help them better understand their situation and discover a path to personal growth. I also encourage the Church’s pastors to listen to them with sensitivity and serenity, with a sincere desire to understand their plight and their point of view, in order to help them live better lives and to recognize their proper place in the Church.” (The Joy of Love, n.312)
Commentary
Some people do not go to the priest because “they do not want to feel judged.” If this is your case, do not worry, it is not the priest’s mission to judge you but to help you judge your situation according to God’s judgment, which is truth and mercy. Go to a priest you trust and open your soul to him. It is not a matter of choosing the one who will only tell you what you want to hear, but the one you are confident knows you and understands your situation. Go, even if you are ashamed. He will treat you well. You will be able to have one of those guiding conversations, which little by little changes your life. It will not be a violent judgment, but a light that will be lit so that you will gradually see more clearly what the God of Love gives you and how you can correspond to Him, step by step.
A priest knows that he is the face of Jesus, the heartbeat of his tender and life-saving Spirit. He never, as a priest, appears as just another man, masking with his prejudices or defects of character the face and heart of Jesus Christ, whom he represents.
Perhaps rediscovering Jesus and his way of loving will be a long journey: we will take as much time as is needed. You are aware that you will not be right about everything, but you will not be humiliated by being told so: you will realize it yourself; you will come to understand better what is happening to you. You have a place in the Church, and you should not give it up, nor should the Church close its doors to you. It is worthwhile to set out on the road with someone to accompany and guide you.
Fear of God – who is tender companionship par excellence – condemns you to emptiness and existential loneliness. That fear of God could be fueled by your fear of the truth about yourself. For if you know God, then you know yourself better. However, God is not frightened by your truth, nor does he shy away from it, nor is he disgusted by it. He is the Jesus of the lepers and the adulteress, the God of the dying, the outcast, and the abandoned. He is the Good Samaritan with the wounded on the roads of life. He is the faithful Father who goes out to await the vicious and prodigal son every morning. If you trust God´s love and place yourself in his hands, God will make you experience within the tenderness of his embrace much more than the best father and mother you could ever dream of is even capable of doing. Faith is nothing other than intimate trust in God and his love.
