We who do the judging and the blaming

Our image of God somehow or other has rather stuck largely with an image of God which is an image of a policeman, or a judge, or an executioner; somebody who is disapproving, somebody who will punish us because we have done wrong. There are all sorts of reasons for that – partly our religious education, partly our own self-judgment. It is we who do the judging and the blaming, not God. Sin does contain its own punishment, but God does not punish. We project our own “elder-brother syndrome” – the resentfulness and the self-hating – we project that onto our image of God and we form an image of God out of that. I think it’s a psychological construction.

Grace at Work by Laurence Freeman OSB