Letter of May 1 st 2003 from Jacques Gaillot
God is not made in our image
 
 

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God is not made in our image.

ecehomo During the war in Iraq, have you noticed how God has been called upon, convened, enlisted? Suddenly he has become essential. How is it possible to do without him if he is the God of the armies, the God of the war? It is in the interest of everybody to have him on his or her side, for evidently the good cause. 
 
When the bombs began to fall on Baghdad, Georges Bush said:" God bless our country and those who defend it" At the same time, Saddam Hussein was addressing to his people: "By the will of God, these days will add to our immortal past your share of glory and victory…"

A Christian confided to me " When it happens that I attend the mass, I cannot stand any more to hear: "God all mighty". If God is all mighty, let him act, let him do something!"

le deuil de Dieu I am writing these words on Good Friday. On the cross we have to mourn a God who resembles us and who we want to put at our service. On the cross the God of religions is dead to leave room to the God of the Gospel. 
 
In the weakness of his flesh, Jesus reveals a God disarmed and removed from his sacredness. Not any more distant and inaccessible but a God close to each of us in our daily life. A God who gives himself without limit. A God who comes towards the excluded persons without restrictions. A God who does not belongs to a specific people but to all humanity.

On the cross, Jesus tears off the veil of religions to let us see a face of God that is not any more made in our image. He is out of religion; he is in the secular world.

Jésus casse l'arme Repeatedly it is noticed that the churches are becoming empty and that the religious practice is declining. One of the reasons could be the withdrawal of religion in society. A will for a liberated reasoning and freedom are characteristic of modernity. The modern man liberates himself from the links of religion. 
 
He takes charge of himself, assumes his destiny, he wants to master his choices. Becoming an adult, he refuses a God who asks for submission and childish attitudes. Why not be happy about that? Beliefs are given up but not necessarily the faith in Christ.
The God of religions is dead but not the God of the Gospel.