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| God Loves You! |
Pope Benedict put it like this in his first homily as Pope on the 24th April, 2005: "Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary." The love of God is not just a nice sentiment. It has huge implications for how we understand and love our own self, how we love our neighbour and how we love God by giving thanks, praise and glory to him.
Jesus is in profound relationship with God
and so, through Jesus we are brought into that relationship with God, firstly by being human, like Jesus was. All of humanity is somehow invited into a new relationship with God because God's Son became a human being.
However, God does not force us to be in relationship with him
so, there is a second way that we are brought into relationship with God through Jesus. This is the free choice we make to 'buy in', instead of 'opting out'. And that free choice was ours at our baptism. For most of us that choice was taken by our parents before we were ever aware of what was happening. Like many choices that our parents make for us, we may find ourselves having issues with those choices at some point in our lives. The moment we discover that we have these issues is a moment of possible growth for us.
We cannot go through life blaming our parents for choosing to have us baptised
We accept our own freedom to 'opt out' or 'buy in'. There comes a point in our lives when we must make that decision our own. Either we accept what God has done for us in Christ and freely choose to buy in, or we do not accept what God has done and we choose to opt out. Many of us live our lives in a kind of default position of in-between. We are neither in nor out. And sometimes this is a sign that we have not matured as an adult. We may choose to dwell on the 'issues' we have with our parents, or for that matter with our Church, with our school teachers, or indeed the government, bankers, developers or whoever. Having a scapegoat to blame all our woes on is a convenient default human position.
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| The Cross - how much God loves us! |
Choosing to 'buy in' is a distinct choice for life rather than death, grace rather than sin, hope rather than despair. Choose life. It is a decision that no other person can make for us; not parent or grandparent, teacher or priest. As those who have made the decision to accept what God has done for us in Christ Jesus, we are 'believers'. Believers are people who buy in. As believers we must demonstrate our belief. It is not enough to be believers, we must be seen to be believers! Baptism is a profound sign of our belief, as are all the Sacraments. Gathering with the community of faith every Sunday to worship God is a profound sign of our belief. Actively participating in and contributing to the life of our parish is another profound sign of believing in God. Imitating the love of God in reaching out to those who are less well off than we are is a profound sign of our belief.
This Sunday is a good Sunday to ask ourselves how Lent is going for us
As we make the journey through Lent, of course we can give up on some of our Lenten promises. We fail. This Sunday is a good time in the middle of our journey through Lent to offer ourselves anew to God as God offers himself to us. "... God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son...".
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