Will God always forgive us?

Today at Mass we heard the parable of the Prodigal Son. It has always been a classical favorite for the teaching of forgiveness. It is used in our children's catechism textbooks as the bible reference for the teaching on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. For me it is the first reference I have to God the Father as loving and forgiving as opposed to the God who wiped out the whole earth with a flood or burned Sodom and Gomorrah for the wretchedness of mankind. This parable speaks volumes about who God is as a father to us, yet the history of the flood and those two doomed cities reminds us of the power of God and his presence in creation.

The Prodigal Son is about so much more than returning to God and seeking forgiveness. God gave us an incredible gift in our intelligence. He trusts us to use our intellect for the good of all mankind. We are given this higher intelligence to make choices that are in alignment with what God wants for us. Ironic that when we speak of beings with higher intelligence we usually refer to aliens from outer space...just sayin'.

It's comforting to know that if we mess up because we have chosen that which goes against the will of God we can come back and seek forgiveness. We know God will forgive and with His grace grow in wisdom and knowledge. God wants us to choose for the good, He wants our choice to be a loving choice. We are all prodigal sons and daughters. As we learn from our sinfulness, hopefully we see the wisdom of God and we come to know what is the good, our good as well as the good for others.

As the father in the parable allowed the son to make his choice, God allows us to make our choices. It is up to us to think about what the consequences of those choices will be. Too often we don't see beyond the immediate gratification of our wants, we don't look at the big picture of who the choice affects. We are too influenced by "if it feels good, do it" mentality. Sometimes there will be difficult choices that bring pain. The father most probably felt pain knowing it wasn't going to end pretty for the son, but he let him go anyway. God experienced much pain giving up His only Son for the sinfulness of others, yet He did it out of love for us, His children of Creation. This could be the perfect example of "divine tough love". No parent wants to see their child hurting or in pain, yet there will be times a parent has to let the child learn by experiencing the pain. It's how we grow, it's called life.

We as parents can then be there to welcome those children home, to love them, comfort them and feel for them. What a gift we will give them, to help them build character and to watch them as they move along the journey God has called them to.

the picture says it all...

Our community was rocked by a tragedy over the weekend. This senseless act of violence didn't occur in our community directly but it affected us just the same. It affected one of our own so of course it affected all of us. We mourn the loss as if it were one of our own family members because indeed it did touch a member of our community so directly. As the Body of Christ we share the pain and loss of even one member of our Church community. We feel the pain as if it were our own.
One of my second graders asked me the other day if God created bad people. We had been talking about creation and how after God created something new each day He pronounced that creation good. I reminded her of this teaching and so naturally the next question was the why do people do bad things. I was waiting for the inevitable why do bad things happen to good people question but she really was concerned with the fact that if people were good why did they do bad things. She reasoned that they must be bad and that they must not love God. I asked her if she had ever gotten in trouble and done something "bad". She honestly answered yes she had, so I asked her if she loved God, she emphatically said she did. I let her mull that over in her head and then I reminded her we all make choices, some good and some not so good. Our actions are a reflection of the choices we make. She then asked that if someone had made a bad choice would God forgive them. I reassured her that yes God would forgive us if we were truly sorry and asked for his forgiveness.
I was reminded that God is truly a forgiving God when it comes to any transgression, but the key is to acknowledge our wrongdoing and we must be sorry for the transgression. I wonder if we realize the sorrow we must feel in our hearts when we have sinned against God and against one another. It must be a gut-wrenching, I am sick to my stomach for hurting you, kind of sorrow. We can not know what is in another's heart and it is not up to us to judge, that will be for God alone. We can pray for those that need to find their way back to God and know that ultimately justice will prevail in the final end, maybe not in this life but certainly in the life to come.
Out of every tragedy comes God's merciful love. Sadly for some it does take a tragedy to see the path their lives have taken. The tragedy that occurs is someone's darkness and from that darkness they may see the light eventually. Hopefully the light of Christ will reach these poor souls involved in the horrific events of this past weekend. It will take much for forgiveness to be won, both from the victims as well as themselves and from God. We as a community can pray for healing, the Body of Christ has been hurt, we as a community must help one another with the healing.