God may not be who you think He is. 

Sounds weird, but possibly true. As Bro. Harvey Mateo, SJ said, you do not experience God's goodness because deep down, you do not think He is all that good.

Bro. Harvey's main point is this: change how we see God and automatically open yourself up to His goodness. Despite being in SFC for some time, many of us still see God as either a “judge” or a “tester”. 

The highest revelation of God is in the New Testament – God is Love.

Jesus' words and actions are proof:

- He welcomed all.

- He healed everybody.

- He denied the connection between sin and suffering.

Putting things into context, Bro. Harvey also showed how reading the Old Testament often confuses people because God always seems “punishing, angry and violent.”  

Bro. Harvey said that the Bible shows:

- progressive evolution of God's images. Despite being 100% inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Bible was still written by very human authors with their biases and impressions. This shows that Man's understanding of who God is was also evolving. 

- Biblical self-correction. Before, the Bible's authors, for example, would attribute certain events to God's anger. Eventually, they would cite the existence of evil forces like demons and evil spirits.     

- the idea that “suffering is because of sin” will be rejected. Characters like Job would show that sometimes, even good people suffer.  

Eventually, people have the following images of God:

- God as the Prodigal Father who is “wasteful” or extravagant in loving 

- God as the Servant-Friend who washes the feet of his friends, something a slave would do 

- God as the Crucified Christ. Jesus dies for us in the ultimate expression of love.

It turns out, the greatest hindrance to being with God is in our own minds and hearts. 

[Nirva'ana Delacruz, SFC ICON Interactive Team]