The whole story of the Bible can be summarized into three
short phrases—God loves us. We sin. God is faithful.
The
sacred author in Wisdom captures these three movements in salvation history: “God formed man to be imperishable; the image
of his own nature he made them.”
God, out of His desire to love and have creatures love Him back, created
humans. He didn’t have to do this
but did. “But by the envy of the Devil, death entered the world, and they who are
in his possession experience it.”
It didn’t take long for our first parents—Adam and Eve—to sin. They chose not to trust God and choose
something outside of His will through the temptations of the serpent. Yet God remained faithful to His
creation: “But the souls of the just are
in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.” While sin disrupted the relationship
between man and God, man and woman, and man and creation, through God’s
fidelity these relationships were not utterly destroyed.
We
can see each of these movements in our own lives. None of us chose to be born—we were created by God and by
the love between our parents. Each
of us, like our first parents, sins.
Yet rather than being cast immediately into hell, God gives us many
opportunities for us to seek His faithfulness by asking forgiveness, especially
in Confession.
We
are called to respond to each of these facts of life—God loves us. We sin. God is faithful. While His love can never be repaid, we
are called to love God to the full and our neighbor as ourselves. After we sin we come before our Lord
humbly, seeking His mercy. And we
thank Him for his infinite patience and forgiveness.
As
our life ebbs and flows with these realities, we respond by gratitude, humility
and perseverance.
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