God wants to save us, but do we want salvation?
Credit to Author: RICARDO SALUDO| Date: Sat, 02 Mar 2019 16:45:04 +0000
A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.… A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
— Jesus in the Gospel of Saint Luke 6:18
As the new 40-day season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, the faithful again commemorate in liturgy, prayer, fasting and almsgiving the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed and Divine Trinity, who became man to redeem the world from sin and death.
We all know the drill, from ashes crossed on the forehead to the Salubong procession when statues of the Risen Jesus and his grieving mother Mary meet, and the lights that fill dark churches at the Easter vigil Mass.
This is the greatest event for Christianity, the glorious fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation for humanity. There is no greater celebration in the faith, as death and sin are finally defeated and heaven is opened for all the earth.
All very fine, but do Christians still care about salvation, or has Easter become just a hunt for eggs and a four-day break?
The pain of being saved
Here’s the problem for many a believer: Redemption is no fun, at least by 21st Century lifestyles. Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, plus Bible reading and sermonizing. They just don’t match up against the lures of the good life (or rather, the bad one).
Sure, there’s hell to pay for those who choose sin over sacrifice, but who believes in hell? Even Pope Francis reportedly said the damned didn’t really roast for eternity, but just vanish. The Vatican doubted that he mouthed that heresy, but the misquote might just be right. Why would an infinitely merciful God burn souls forever and ever?
So, with eternal damnation not what it used to be, many a Catholic is content to coast, with a routine of easy living, a sin or two every now and then, and Sunday or sometime Mass. As for denying oneself and taking up one’s cross, as the Lord admonished, leave that to the saints and the fanatics.
In this writer’s alumni chat groups from two Catholic institutions, politics, college sports, and girls are the thing, with occasional prayers and admonitions, but hardly anything about saving souls, as if they don’t need redemption. When this writer reminded one group about Catholic morals, especially on sexuality, some took offense, and no one expressed appreciation for the concern over souls being stained by sin.
Hence, many of the faithful today, especially the affluent and highly educated, may miss or dismiss the message of today’s Mass readings on the trials of being Christian.
In the first reading, the prophet Sirach talks of “tribulation … the test of the just,” like a furnace in which clay hardens into the shape molded by the potter, presumably God. In St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, “the corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility” — no room for good dirty fun here.
And in St. Luke’s Gospel, quoted above, our Lord minces no words. The tree — that’s you and me — is either good or bad. No prizes for guessing which kind can be with God at the end of life.
But won’t God have mercy on the sinner? A quick sorry plus purgatory, and we’re in heaven hunky dory, right? Here’s what Sirach said in a warning just last Thursday:
“Of forgiveness be not overconfident, adding sin upon sin. Say not: ‘Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive.’ For mercy and anger alike are with him; upon the wicked alights his wrath. Delay not your conversion to the Lord, put it not off from day to day. For suddenly his wrath flames forth; at the time of vengeance you will be destroyed” (Sirach 5:5-7).
To be with God, be like God
Will God really damn for eternity? For the faithful who believe, the Bible speaks God’s word, His intent for man from day one is crystal clear. He made us in his image, to be like Him. And when man went astray, God kept giving him every chance to repent and return to the right path.
When Adam and Eve lost paradise, God promised salvation through the woman’s seed. After the Great Flood, the world got a reset with Noah and his ark of paired animals. And in the dispersal of humanity in the multiplicity of tongues at Babel, God chose Abram to become Abraham — meaning “father of a multitude” — from among whose descendants the Messiah would arise.
Through Moses and other prophets, God handed down laws and precepts, so that humanity, starting with the Israelites, would know the way to holiness. And when the Chosen People kept breaking His commands, Yahweh promised to write the law in their hearts. He would transform humanity into the holy people He wanted us to be.
Finally, to make His wish for man absolutely clear, He Himself became man through His Second Person, and showed how we can be holy and perfect as He is. And even when we falter, as our fallen humanity inevitably does, God’s grace will cleanse and uplift the fallen who believe and call upon Him in the person of Christ.
As that synopsis of salvation history makes plain, God wants us to be good, holy and perfect, and gives us every means for this singular purpose of our existence. That’s what Christmas, Lent, Easter, and all the rest of the Church year, plus the Bible, the Seven Sacraments, the Catechism, and other preachings and practices of the faith, are all for.
So, this season of sacrifice and forgiveness, when God died for us to become like Him, the paramount point not to miss is that we are called to holiness and glory, like the Risen Christ.
If we reject that call, we say no to God — and yes to what is not God. Forever.
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