Catholic Exchange

God Cannot Be Manipulated

Written by

Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.

in

Heb 3:7-14 / Mk 1:40-45

I found something quite astonishing in our church the other day, a stack of nine copies of a perfectly fine little prayer to St Jude.  But typed on the bottom of each one was this instruction: “Make 81 copies of this prayer, deposit nine copies in your church every day for nine days.  No later than the ninth day, your prayer will be granted.” As if the Almighty God and Lord of the universe could be manipulated so easily and made to do our bidding! As the title of that old book says, “Your God Is Too Small”!

It was the same kind of mechanical, magical approach to God that the Israelites tried when they sent for the Ark of the Covenant as they faced the Philistines in battle. It didn’t occur to them to look inward for the source of their recent defeat. “We just forgot to use the right magic,” they said to themselves as they repeated their mistake yet again.

The quest for a quick fix and for cheap salvation is a perennial one, and it can leave us dangerously impoverished within. There is no valid religious practice or experience which is not about transformation, our transformation on the inside.  Wherever that is lacking, we are wasting our time, and fooling ourselves into thinking that God can be manipulated or fooled.

He can’t! So let’s get serious about transformation.

Comments

2 responses to “God Cannot Be Manipulated”

  1. madhattertea Avatar
    madhattertea

    Thank you Monsignor. That is really something I needed to read.I have a huge miracle I’m praying for and while I’ve seen those cards I leave them. They always make me have a feeling of panic, like I’m not praying enough, but I ignore them anyway. I simply can’t get to the church every day with nine copies for nine days after saying the prayers nine times each day…it’s over whelming.

    I figure if laying my heart bare to God for this intention isn’t enough, then it simply must not be in his divine will.

    But someone leaves them.

    I wish they wouldn’t.
    maddy

  2. Jim Avatar
    Jim

    I recently read a book published in the 1930s by a priest (I think it was Fr. Thurston) on superstition. He pointed out that we can render otherwise legitimate Catholic devotions superstitious by abusing them or using them incorrectly. How many people have been driven away from the Church in part because of this problem? Thanks, Monsignor.

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