Dear Editor,
Fr Stephen’s April letter was one of his best. It was good to see the prominence given to Peter Abelard’s exemplarist theory, which I have always found attractive.
Surely the good news, the gospel, of Jesus Christ is that God is a God of love, not a God who would willingly inflict punishment on any of his creatures. More than once Jesus quotes the saying in Hosea, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”. There is no place for sacrifice to avert the
wrath of God. God is love; and if from time to time we feel temporarily alienated from God, that is our fault, not His: He is always holding out His offer of forgiveness and reconciliation if we will accept it..
As a lawyer I like to get at the essential point of a problem and as far as possible ignore the minor details; and the essential point of Jesus’ teaching is that God is a loving Father, who will go out of his way to rescue a lost sheep, who will welcome a penitent prodigal son; and the commandments laid on us are the corollary, Love God and Love our neighbours. The lawyer in Mark 12.28-34 similarly got to the heart of Jesus’ teaching: “Well said, Master. To love God with all your heart … and to love your neighbour as yourself – that is far more than any burnt offerings or sacrifices.”
Peter Abelard saw great love in the passion of Christ. I do not think this is all that difficult to understand. One only has to think of the alternatives to see that it must be right. Jesus could have run away from the challenge presented to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane; but He
could not have lived with Himself or with His disciples if He had done so – He would have lost their love and respect. As it was, He retained their love right through the Crucifixion, and they were rewarded by the reassurance given to them by His Resurrection. As Peter Abelard says, we are incited to love by the Passion, and following the example of Jesus, we should fulfil all things not through fear (there is no “wrath of God” to fear, of the kind that was thought to be averted by sacrifices) but through love.
Yours faithfully,
Ted Nugee
Letter from Ted Nugee