Trying to understand or make sense of events like the tsunami disaster of four months ago seems to lead people rather easily into thinking of them as 'judgements of God'. It's probably always been a human reaction to events beyond our comprehension. Even good and godly people sometimes seem to understand God mostly in terms of vengeance, anger and judgement. Certainly, the Bible does use such human words and emotions in referring to God and His relationship with an often 'hard-necked' people. And certainly God is and will be our 'judge'. But how much of the meaning we put into that word comes from our supposed understanding of justice systems in our imperfect world? Even for legal experts, what connection is there, really, between a human 'judge' and what we otherwise know of our Creator and Lord? Perhaps also it may be our feelings of guilt (justified or not) which incline us towards that more fearful image of God as judge.

In contrast, what a different image of God Jesus puts before us in the gospel of St John, especially in the chapters associated with the Last Supper which are the Mass readings from now until Pentecost! "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world". Jesus speaks about His Father, about His Father's words and will: it's all about faith, trust, light overcoming darkness, everlasting life which is what the Father's commandment is.