My brothers and sisters in Christ, as I was praying over and thinking about these readings, I was inspired to share with you the immense joy that comes in being real with Christ.
Our 2nd reading begins, “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ”. But in order to know the God who is rich in mercy and love, we must know the consequences of our sins. The book of Romans tells us that ‘the consequence of sin is death’. The consequence of sin is death, every sin, no matter how big or small, is against God, and anything that is against God is not worthy of God. Because of Adam’s sin, and in turn, because of each of our individual sins, we are not worthy to share in God’s life- that is we deserve death. And so, as our 2nd reading says, we are dead in our transgressions. And there was nothing we could have done about it, no amount of good we could ever do could make up for just one sin. There was nothing we could have done to make us be happy and have life in us.
Our 1st reading is from the 1st book of Chronicles. Chronicles is like a sweeping overview of salvation history and God’s interaction with his people. Our 1st reading begins, “in those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s temple”. The people added infidelity to infidelity. Infidelity was added on top of more infidelity, more sin was added on top of sin. But did you catch that? Everyone was behaving that way. Chronicles says that even the leaders of the people and the priests were sinning, practicing all the abominations and polluting the Lord’s temple. And let me tell you, as a priest today that convicted me- I do not want to be that kind of priest. Even those who should know better, those who were supposed to stand for God and call the people to repentance, didn’t. Everyone was adding sin upon sin in their lives, sounds pretty hopeless doesn’t it? And we know the consequences of sin is death. Can you imagine the hopelessness there must have been in the people’s lives at this time…and still today! Many people are just going through life without any purpose, just doing whatever they want, whatever pleases them and think will make them happy, just walking through life putting on fake smiles but in the inside are living in the darkness of sin. Not knowing that is not how they were meant to live, not knowing that they were meant for happiness, they were meant to live in true joy. So many people living in darkness not knowing there is a light, not knowing there is a better life. And we might wonder why they don’t know it?
Our 1st reading from Chronicles goes on to say, “Early and often did the Lord send his messengers to them, for He had compassion on his people”. God saw his people’s sin, but also their unhappiness and their longing. And God had compassion on His people. God remembered His covenant, his love for his people never wavered. Even though their sin deserved God to just give up on them, God didn’t. Even though they had wandered far from Him, God still loved his people. This is hard for some people today as it was back then to fathom, so hard for some to accept. Many people today are stuck in their sin, stuck in their shame and guilt, that they can’t accept God’s unconditional love for them. They can’t accept that God’s love hasn’t and will not change, that God will never give up on them. Many people can’t understand that the same love which caused God to send the prophets in the Old Testament to call them back to himself, is the same love which inspired God thousands of years later to send his only Son; not to condemn the world, but that the world would be saved. God’s love is difficult for us to fathom, so far beyond what we could even imagine, so far beyond what we think we deserve. And so some tend to think it is too good to be true, too unfathomable, so they don’t believe or accept it.
Our Gospel gives us another reason why it is hard to accept God’s love and life. It says, “The light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that their works might not be exposed”. Stuck in their darkness of shame and guilt, so many people are afraid to come to God, afraid to tell Him their weaknesses because they think God will condemn them. They are afraid because they don’t really know who God is. That is they are thinking the way human beings do. They think that because they deserve death, because they deserve the unhappiness and suffering, and because they deserve it they assume God would give it to them. They don’t know that Jesus said, in the Sr. Faustina’s Diary on Divine Mercy, “Before I come as a just judge, I first open wide the door of my mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of my mercy must pass through the door of my justice”. The people who think God couldn’t possibly forgive what they’ve done, don’t really know who God is. They don’t know that God is rich in mercy and love.
I’d like to tell you about an encounter that helped me really know that God is a God of love and mercy; that God’s love is so very real. At a time before I was ordained, I was slothful and in a low point in my spiritual life. Not only was I not praying as much as I should, but I was heaping sin upon sin, and I continually let myself go into sin. I knew what I was doing, I knew it was wrong, but I reasoned that because I was going on a retreat in a few day that I can get back on track then. Well a few days into the retreat, I was trying to get back on track. I was trying to be who I was before, trying to be who I knew I was supposed to be. It was like I was trying to ignore the elephant in the room. I had wanted to just forget and sweep under the rug what I had done days earlier, but I couldn’t ignore it any more. I realized that I had to face it, but face it was so terrifying. It was so difficult to go back to God in prayer with so much shame and guilt. But when I finally did, God asked me in a kind and gentle voice what makes you so upset about what you did a few days earlier- what are you so upset and angry about? After thinking about it a while, I told God that I was so upset and angry at myself because I had done those such terrible things so blatantly in His face. That I had so easily and conscientiously ignored God’s grace and chosen against Him. And after letting that self-anger boil within me, getting myself even more and more down and upset. God in such a soft and loving voice said to my heart- don’t you see that that shows to me how much you love me? The fact that the reason you are so upset at yourself is because you so blatantly and conscientiously ignored me- the very fact that you are so upset at yourself is because you hurt me doing that sin- that shows to me how much you love me. God went on to show me that He loves me, for me. He sees past my sinful actions, beyond my human weaknesses, and sees my heart. And even though my actions don’t always show it, God knows my heart- your heart, every person’s heart- is longing for love and happiness. And even though we tend to look for it apart from God, because God still sees that longing- God wants to fill that longing with His love and mercy. For that is who God is.
My brothers and sisters, if you really don’t know God love for you deep down in your heart, if you have not truly encountered who God is yet, don’t be afraid to come to God, come to him in your weaknesses. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable with Him, for when we are- God is most gentle and loving.
It is hard for us to fully fathom and understand God’s love for us, but accept it into ourselves we must; our happiness, our joy, and our very life depends on it.