(Listen to this homily here).
Here is an eight-word summary of salvation history. This history covers the greatest story
ever told which goes beyond time itself.
God’s relationship with His creation is billions of years old; His
relationship with us, around 200,000 years.
And
here is a quick summary: God loves
us. We sin. God is faithful.
These
three realities are seen over and over again in the Bible, especially the Old
Testament. They are the driving
force of the great story of the Scriptures in describing God’s love and
fidelity to us despite our sinfulness.
We
see these movements at work in a clear way in our first reading from 2nd
Chronicles. First, God’s love: “Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,
send
his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling
place.” How
powerful—“early and often” God
manifested His love to His people in the Old Testament and to us today.
Yet the Israelites continue to sin. Despite experiencing God’s great love
throughout history, the Chronicler reports, “In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the
people added infidelity to infidelity…they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets…” The sacred author goes on to note that
the Israelites entered their darkest period through their disobedience to
God. They were conquered by the
Babylonians, exiled from their land and lost everyone and everything dear to
them.
Here’s where things really get interesting. The Word of God reads: “…the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy.” Wait a second?
Isn’t this contrary to God’s love?
How can God be angry to the point there is no remedy?
We must remember that God doesn’t have emotions like
us. He doesn’t actually get
angry—He doesn’t change. In fact,
God is love. So anytime we read in Scripture about
an emotion of God, what is really being expressed is a unique manifestation of
God’s love from our perspective.
When you think about it—you can’t be angry if you don’t
love first. That’s why we get so
angry with the Minnesota Vikings when they lose. We love (I use this word loosely here) our team and continue
to be mad when they blow it. If we
didn’t care about them, we wouldn’t care if they lost.
Or here is an example for you parents. At some point, each of you told your
child, “Don’t touch that pan, it’s hot…don’t touch it…DON’T TOUCH IT!” And what did your child often do? If they were like me, they touched
it! And you probably cried out in
shock—even in frustration or concern—“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” This is the anger described of
God. He kept telling the
Israelites, “Don’t do that! Don’t
worship that! Don’t idolize
that!” And how did they
respond? They touched the hot
pan! Your child’s finger got burnt
through this experience…this is reality.
Likewise, the Israelites received the consequences of their
actions.
As a loving parent, how did you treat your child? Did you say, “I told you so…good luck
with that burn…enjoy the punishment of your mistake”? Of course not!
You put your child’s finger under cold water, caressed them or gave it a
kiss to make it better. This is
how God responds after we sin. He
is faithful.
St. Paul puts it this way: “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ —
by grace you have been saved —, raised us up with him…”
John the Evangelist expresses the reality of God’s love
and fidelity in the most famous verses in the entire Bible—another excellent
summary of salvation history: “For God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
might not perish but might have eternal life.”
God loves us.
We sin. God is faithful.
Lent is a time to face our sin head on. It is a time to come humbly to our Lord
who not only loved us first but also is infinitely patient, infinitely merciful
and infinitely faithful to us despite our sinfulness.
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