God's love to those lost in sin

Thursday, April 18, 2016

Thursday of the 20^th Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading from the book of the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord says to his sinful people of Israel who have fallen away from His covenant with them, not words of condemnation, but rather

I will sprinkle clean water up on you to cleanse you from all your impurities,

and from all your idols I will cleanse you.

I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you,

taking from your bodies your stony hearts

and giving you natural hearts.

I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes,

careful to observe my decrees.

Note first of all that God’s action upon His people (and that includes you and me) is a free gift that is totally undeserved to a sinful people. How great is God’s love! How overwhelming His grace. It is always His action and not ours that brings us into right relationship with Him.

So many Christians don’t see this because they do not read the Scriptures with eyes open to the mystical beauty of God’s love, but rather focus on condemnation and punishment. But God’s action breaks through impurities and idols----and we have many of those if we take a very honest look at what we are usually most concerned and most preoccupied about. God’s action goes right to the heart of things, as He says in this passage. And it is in the heart that His work is done, if only we open our arms, our hearts, our minds and our spirits to his free, gratuitous and extraordinarily generous loving action.

As for the last two lines of the passage, I would explain it this way, as does Richard Rohr in his book which I keep recommending (Things Hidden: scripture as spirituality): When we accept the gift that God is offering to us, and once again remember that this gift is not something that we have earned, merited or deserved, and this gift comes to us in the midst of our sinfulness, well then, once we have opened our hearts to receive this gift, then right and moral conduct naturally results, even if it takes a lifetime.

Consider these things, will you, and give thanks.

May God continue to bless you with his overwhelming grace!