The story is told of a young man who entered a very strict monastic order. It was so strict that members were permitted to speak only two words per year to the abbot. When the young man reached the end of year one he appeared before the abbot and spoke his two words, "bad food." When the end of the second year came, the young man appeared before the abbot and spoke two more words, "hard bed." When year three had ended he came to the abbot and spoke his last two words, "I quit."

The abbot responded, "Well it's about time. Complain, complain, complain . . . that's all you've done since you came here."

It is very easy to be negative. It is even easier to be negative about someone or something else. We like to complain. We like to find fault. We like to judge and condemn. It seems we have greater facility to find something negative to say than to find something positive to say. We truly are a people living in darkness.

Life would not be worth living if our portrait ended with these words. Yet, for many, life does end with this image of self. This is not new. Our first reading from Second Chronicles records people believing the same thing. It seems that the people of this time, as do we, find it difficult to believe in a loving reality that exists beyond themselves. The prophets are sent to break through their self-absorbsion and to offer them a glimpse of this loving reality, but the people find it easier to be negative. They speak of the cost of God's friendship being too demanding, too frightening. They choose instead to live in their fear and escape into their flights of fantasy in which they imagine themselves as having power over everything and everyone - even over death.

Ironically, that which we futilely strive to attain by ourselves is offered freely and without condition to us by God. St. Paul, in our second reading, writes "God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love [God] has for us, even when we were dead in our [sin], brought us to life with Christ - by grace you have been saved - . . . "

We might on one level believe this, but few of us actually live it consistently. Daily we make futile and frustrating efforts to be good, to be holy, to win the approval of other people, to win the approval of God. And we can't!

Life and people can and do hurt us. The wounds created by these hurts fester and create a bottomless need that no one and nothing can fulfill. Our wounds tell us that this is not a safe universe in which we live. We are driven to create our own universe. This soon becomes a daunting task, sapping us of all energy and life. Our negativity reflects the image of the idol that we have created.

We don't have to create goodness in ourselves or a safe universe in which to live. It is already there because God dwells with us. God's friendship costs us nothing and everything. It costs us nothing because God initiates the friendship. It costs us everything because once God becomes our friend we can't get enough of God. It costs us nothing because who we are, what we own, everything we have earned or acquired is nothing. It costs us everything because who we are is the image of God. It costs us nothing because everything is gift. It costs us everything because God's love completely transforms us.

In an old Dennis the Menace cartoon, Dennis and his little friend Joey are leaving Mrs. Wilson's house, their hands full of cookies. Joey says, "I wonder what we did to deserve this."

Dennis answers, "Look, Joey. Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we're good, but because she's good."

When we come to know God we are free to see ourselves in all our imperfection and be able to rejoice in the gift of God dwelling in us.