HAPPY THE PEOPLE WHOSE SINS ARE PARDONED


THURSDAY, TWENTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Cor 15:1-11; Ps 118:1-2,15-17; Lk 7:36-50

Our Knowledge of God’s Love

We cannot love God without God first coming to our help in love. The fact that we are sinners means that we are bereft of God’s life. Living in sin, we lack the knowledge of God and are unable to love him. God willed to bring us to spiritual life again by sending his Only Begotten Son to reveal his loving will to us. This is the content of the Gospel we have received. We cannot love God without getting acquainted with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The preaching of the Gospel is therefore the revelation of God’s love for us, for all peoples and nations. God invites everyone to his divine life through the proclamation of the Gospel. Hence, our ignorance of the Gospel causes our lack of repentance from our sins and sinful lifestyle. Our ignorance of the Gospel is ignorance of Jesus Christ; and the ignorance of Jesus Christ is ignorance of God and his loving providence for us. Hence, the Church is formed by the Gospel and exists to proclaim the Gospel. Understanding the Church as the body of Jesus Christ means understanding the Church as the Gospel visibly lived and proclaimed. There is no Church without the Gospel; as we cannot live the Gospel without the Church.  

When faith is lacking, the Gospel recedes into its spiritual form. The same applies to the Church. The Church is visible and tangible only where true faith in the word of God is practiced. Saint Paul witnesses to this in his first letter to the Corinthians. “Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you—believing anything else will not lead to anything.” Based on this understanding, the Church is wary about doctrines. Not every gathering in the name of Jesus Christ is supposedly profitable for salvation. The proclamation of the Gospel reveals God’s love for us. To alter any aspect of the Gospel removes from our knowledge of God’s love and mercy. Subsequently, Paul went through the major articles of our faith, which we profess each Sunday at the Eucharistic celebration. The celebration of the Eucharist guides us to know our sins and our sinfulness, to confess our sins, rekindle our faith in God by listening to his word, and profess our faith in the celebration of love in the Eucharistic communion.

If we fail to know how sinful we really are, we will be less open and motivated to receive God’s forgiveness and love, which draws us to communion with Jesus Christ. We have stressed the importance of acknowledgement of our sins and sinfulness as a necessary means of entering into a deep interior spiritual walk with God. The more we empty ourselves, through God’s grace, in humble acknowledgement of our nothingness before God, the higher and deeper he takes us into his loving communion through the Holy Spirit. Our Lord himself made this revelation in the Gospel when he responded to Simon the Pharisee’s cynical thought about the sinful woman’s affectionate expressions of love for the Lord. “‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ ‘Speak, Master,’ was the reply. ‘There was once a creditor who had two men in his debt; one owed him five hundred denarii, the other fifty. They were unable to pay, so he pardoned them both. Which of them will love him more?’ ‘The one who was pardoned more, I suppose’ answered Simon. Jesus said, ‘You are right.’” None of us owe God less than another; we are heavily indebted to God. To think that we are not sinners is to call God a liar according to 1 John 1:10. Such supposition is exactly what prevents us from responding in love to God or responding to his love as we should. We pray for the grace to understand how much God has forgiven us.

Let us pray: Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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