This is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another....
Children, let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth. Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts before him in whatever our hearts condemn....
On the way to mature faith, many people suffer severe doubts about their own worthiness to be loved by God, and occasionally slip into a fatal conviction that they are damned and doomed. Exaggerating their sins -- which seems like a good idea since we're taught not to minimize -- and finding themselves still essentially the same persons they always were, they suppose that they have lost every hope of salvation. Life-long infant-baptized Catholics and recent "converts" alike may suffer this syndrome.
Saint John, in his First Letter, would reassure these anxious souls. He urges them to reassure their hearts before him [Jesus] in whatever their hearts condemn by the new and real friends they have found in the Church. If the Church doesn't hate you, you're probably okay with God.
True, everyone tries to keep up appearances as they negotiate the innumerable trials of life; but, after a while, we know you pretty well, and you know who your friends are. We like some people more than others, and prefer their company, but we learn to make allowances for everyone and, when push comes to shove, we can respect and even admire the people we don't much care to associate with. It may take an effort but the Holy Spirit makes the effort easy.
Faith means nothing if it lacks a sense of humor; and as we remember the sins of our past and acknowledge the sins of our present and probable future, we realize that God's mercy is superabundant. We can laugh at our impatience, irritability, and petty weakness for our "sinful pleasures" because the Lord himself has told us to quit getting in the way of his love. As one dear friend told me many years ago, "Oh, shut up!"
None of us have murdered our brother Abel, though we might have hoped he would have a happy death -- and soon. But, on the other hand, all us can remember moments when we did the right thing and suffered for it. We have occasionally championed the weak and spoke truth to power. And, on the verso page, there have been many graceful opportunities we let slip by.
We let God be our judge and remember that God is merciful. As I say to many Veterans in the hospital, "If God is not merciful we're all in deep trouble!"
...for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.
Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence in God.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.