God's Mercy
How great is God's mercy? Greater than we could ever fathom. Often we can get caught up in our own downfalls and sinfullness and forget that, through it all, God loves us. A great point that was made in the homily at the Mass I attended was that some people stay away from Confession, Mass and the Eucharist, or the Church altogether because of their sinfullness. When asked "Why?" it can often be that "My sins are so bad, God could never forgive me." Now, we know that when we come before the Lord in true contrition to confession, truly desire to transform our lives away from that sin and do penance, our sins are forgiven. The point that was driven home in the homily, that God loves us unconditionally not because of who we are, but because of who He is. Often we get wrapped up in our side of things as it relates to our relationship with God, but we forget to think about the other side of this relationship.
We must remember that God did not create us out of any "need" on His part, no longing for commpanionship or relationship. God created us because he wanted to. God created us out of love. Every person is a beloved child of God and we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Knowing that God loves us all completely, we must see through the filters that life, society, time and place have given to us to see eachother. In the Gospel story of the leper, let us consider the time this occured. The First Reading (Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46) gives us a glimpse of how one suffering from leprosy, but obedient to the Law in the first century would be required to act. For all intents and purposes, with no medicinal cure for leprosy, a leper was essentually dead. They were a non-person, that must make themselves known purely to be avoided and to avoid others as to not spread their disease.
When we hear that the leper came, kneeled down and begged before Jesus, we can imagine anyone looking at this scene would have been horrified. How dare this unclean man approach the rabii in such a way. Then we hear his words, "If you wish, you can make me clean." This man knew and had faith in Jesus, had faith in God. Jesus responds, "I do will it. Be made clean." It is not these few words that would have been most astonishing to the onlookers but the small fact of that Jesus reached out and touched the man. We have established that lepers were literally "untouchable." To touch a leper could have been considered a death wish, as it was beleived that mere contact with a leper would give you the disease. This is one of many examples where Jesus breaks cultural and social norms. But in this instance, what does this break express? It expresses love. This man, dead to society and dead to the world, was shown love by Jesus. He was shown the love of the Father and he was made clean, he was given new life.
What does this mean for us? This means that we too, no matter how far we have fallen away or how stuck in our lives of sin we might feel, we are still loved by God. So long as we do not fully turn our backs on Him, the chance of reconciliation is never severed. However we must be proactive on that matter. We must seek to rectify our lives, and come kneeling and begging before Christ to be healded. We must put out pride aside for the sake out our own salvation and approach the sacrament of penance. We must come, confess all of our sins, seek repentance, seek to reform our lives and be willing to do penance. Then a beautiful thing happens. We come asking forgiveness and Christ tells us, "Be made clean," as he did to the leper. In the words of absolution given by the priest, in persona Christi, a great weight is lifted from us. Our garments are made clean again grace comes rushing back into our lives.
But why? Why all of this? Why, no matter how far I have fallen, does God still love me and forgive me when I ask for it? The same reason we were created, because God love us. Our sins do not define us, that is what the evil one wants us to beleive. He wants us to fall into line behind false labels, false idols and false hopes. The temporary pleasure we find in sin is only a lie, it is temporary and fleeting. The happiness and glory we hope to experience in heaven, after a life well lived, seeking to be in union with our creator, is everlasting. We must repent of our sins, we must reform our lives and we must live as heralds of the Gospel. As Paul closes in the Second Reading (1 Cor 10:31-11:1), "...I try to please everyonein every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ."
Comments
Post a Comment