Gary Zimak, drawing from Fr. Robert Spitzer’s book “The Light Shines on in Darkness,” explains why it’s more accurate to understand God as a benevolent Father than as a strict authoritarian figure.
Transcript:
Host: Another questioner asks about our image of God. I wonder if you have something to say about that, that we might have an image of God that would generate anxiety and worry in us?
Gary: Yeah, you know what–and I should remember that–I’m reading a book right now about this, Fr. Spitzer has an excellent book out about suffering, and he talks about–he goes into this in detail, so funny that this came up–and he talks about every time Jesus talked about His Father. It’s always in a loving way. And yet there are different images of our Heavenly Father sometimes. People are afraid of Him; they think he’s a tyrant, they think he’s disinterested, but yet our Heavenly Father really loves us.
And if we really key in on the words of Jesus Christ and the way he described His Father and all of the merciful attributes of our Heavenly Father, you realize that He loves you; and if he loves you, then he’s not going to want anything to happen in your life that cannot help you in some way.
Host: Is it–you know, I have the book on my desk. It’s an excellent book. And I couldn’t remember the name of it, so I looked it up. It’s “The Light Shines on in Darkness.” That’s the one?
Gary: Yes. And he talks about several erroneous images of the Heavenly Father.