Sticking To Our Job

On one occasion in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, 6-year-old Calvin makes this observation: “It’s hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.”

Most of us believe that God must surely judge others as we do: bad people deserve punishment and good people merit a reward. It can be infuriating when God offers mercy to one who has done wrong — just ask the brother of the Prodigal Son. In fact, God has quite a reputation for being merciful. In Psalm 69, after detailing the evil deeds of his enemies, the psalmist implores God, “Keep a full record of their guilt; none of your mercy for them!”

Thomas Merton observed, “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbor worthy.” This is what Jesus did, and that is what he called us to do.

It’s hard to overcome our tendency to be judgmental, but God doesn’t need our input in that regard. God wants us to be “religious” in the root sense of religio — which, as Fr. Richard Rohr points out, means to connect, to bind back together. And that can only be achieved through love, not through bolts of lightning.