When he was a boy, Cardinal Hume's parents had an image in the house of the Eye of Providence, kind of like the eye that is on top the pyramid on the back of a one dollar bill, except much larger. They told their young son that this holy image was meant to be a reminder that God sees everything that we do. Whenever Hume misbehaved, his mother would scold him and remind him that even if he could hide his bad behavior from her, he could not hide it from God. By the time he reached adolescence, Hume had grown to loathe the image of the Eye of Providence. As a young priest, he was called in to visit a woman who was on her deathbed. When he entered her room he immediately noticed an image of the Eye of Providence. Hume asked the dying woman why she had this image in her room. She responded matter-of-factly, "The Eye reminds me that God is always looking at me and loving me".
Cardinal Hume and the dying woman looked at exactly the same image, but they saw two entirely different things: Hume saw the symbol of a vindicive God, someone who was always looking to toss a thunderbolt down to smite us. The dying woman saw a powerful reminder of God's infinite love for her. Which is it for us?