Divine Judgment: Not Our Business

Mark Shea still thinks a hurricane destroyed NO.

For this, enthusiasists for God's Righteous Judgement on NO heathenry declare him person non Fides. Not to mention the ultra-fundamentalist New Agers, who take him to task for saying God judges evil at all. Of course he blames the victims when he does that! "God simply loves us! He doesn't demand we actually do something like change," they might as well say.

Truth's little more complicated:

People seem to have the idea that the Real Judgment of God is found in cinematic events like Noah's flood and the parting of the Red Sea. These are images of God's judgment. They foreshadow the real judgment which took place on the Cross. If we want to really understand judgment (and mercy) in fullness, we have to look there. If we say, "Oh. Yeah. That. I guess." and then turn eagerly away from it to the images we'll be reading Scripture backwards. Real judgment takes place in the Cross and in our response to it. And like all real judgment, it not only reveals God to us, but reveals us to ourselves.

So I believe divine judgment is real-and that it typically occurs when God shows us our own faces. In the crucifixion, a terrible judgment is rendered against Caiaphas, against Pilate, against Peter and the disciples, against Judas. But the judgment is intrinsic to who they are. Those who make it through that terrible day of judgment with hope are the ones who, either at that time or eventually, choose to bear Jesus' torment--the torment reserved for the accursed. Mary bore it immediately and fully. In the eyes of the Establishment who murdered her Son, she was also accursed and the rumors continued forever after about her alleged liaison with a Roman centurion who was the real father of Jesus. Those who came limping along after, smarting from their judgment like Peter, likewise shared in the curses that fell on Christ. But the respectable people--the people who were perfectly certain they knew why God had visited this punishment on Jesus and who were perfectly certain that he was being judged.... God help them.

If we want to see God's judgement, we will look no further than Christ upon his Cross. There, we will find what we seek. For if we are honest with ourselves, we'll experience the gratitude for Jesus choosing to bear what we alone could not. We'll also realize how far short of the Glory of God we truly are.

Then, perhaps, we won't act so quickly to speak for God when acts of Nature explode on the scene. I pray we do. Otherwise...God help us!