God's Promise

I believe that Catholics focus too much on sin and the detrimental effects that sin has on our lives. This is not to say that human beings should not avoid sin - of course we should - rather, it is to say that we should not put ourselves into a situation where we allow sin and guilt to control our lives. Catholics seem to believe that God expects His people to be perfect. This is not the case! God does call each of us to strive for sainthood in our lives, but He never expects that we will be perfect. God knows all and He knows that for a human being to be perfect and without sin is impossible (except in the case of Christ and Mary, both of whom were conceived without Original Sin).

As Catholics, we should focus more on salvation than on sin! Remember that God is our Father, the ultimate parent of all who live on this earth. Does any parent you know expect their child to be perfect? Does any parent you know turn their back on their child when the child makes a mistake? Earthly parents realize that children will make mistakes - and that's OK! It is through our mistakes that we learn to be better people and to lead better lives. When a child makes a mistake, the parent doesn't turn away from the child and leave it to solve its own problems; rather, the parent comes to the aid of the child, corrects it, sets it on a right path and then lets it explore on its own again.

So, too, does God treat us, his eternal and precious children. When we sin, God doesn't turn his back on us. God doesn't call any of us to sin, but he realizes that we will. He expects that we will. He knows that we will. Just as any parent knows that their child will make mistakes, God knows that we will sin in this world. And this is where God's infinite grace comes into play - when we sin, God doesn't disappear from our lives. Instead, God rushes to us with open arms, picks us up and says, "My precious, precious child! Look how far you have come! Look what you have learned! Take this lesson out into the world and be a better person. I will save you from this sin! Take that forgiveness out into the world and be Christ for others."

God demands nothing more of us than we are able to give. Some of us may be called to save an entire nation of people through service in Africa, whereas other may be called to make a single person on this earth smile. Only God knows for sure what His plan is for His people. It is up to us as human beings to discern God's will in our lives and act accordingly. None of us should be worried if we feel that we are being called to make only one person happy, just as we should not be worried if we discern a call to serve a poor African nation. If we listen to God's will and follow through with it, God will be well pleased with us. God will be just as pleased with the person who makes one person happy as He will be with the person who saves an African nation if that is what we are called to. God's love is endless, and He fills each of us with a love so great that our bodies would never be able to maintain it if God wasn't still with us holding it together.

It is because of this that God has given us a gift greater than any gift we could ever repay. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that we may believe in Him and have eternal life! God has given humanity the gift of salvation through the suffering and death of his Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ! Christ gave His very life to save us from our sins! Christ did not come to save the righteous - He came to save the sinner. Christ's gift of His very life for our salvation is a gift beyond any gift that we could ever give back to the Lord. And yet, God does call us to give something back - we are called to a life of worship of the Lord through service to those around us. If we truly listen to the call of God in our lives and we follow through with that call, we will please God and he will shower us with his Grace.

But what about those who do not believe? What about those who do not accept Christ as their Savior? Are these people damned forever? Most certainly not! God is right beside even the worst sinner among us, calling them to a life of holiness. God is a loving parent. Just as no parent would want to see their child despair, God does not want to see His children end up in Hell. God calls out to each of us, raining down His graces upons every man, woman and child. All we must do is open our hearts to the graces of the Lord. Once we receive one blessing, another will follow, and another until it would seem that there are no blessings left. But the moment we think that God's grace has expired, it starts again, this time even more fully and at a level we will never understand. This is because God's love is Infinite. If we simply open our hearts to His love, we embrace the gift of His Son for our salvation. And if we accept Christ, we accepts the Spirit, and if we accept the Spirit, we accept God, and if we accept God, we accept Love. And it is Love that binds all things together in this world. If we live a life full of Love, we will truly find it impossilble to sin, for Love can know no Sin.

Importantly, we must always remember that we are human and that we WILL sin. There is nothing we can do about the fact that sin is simply an area in our lives where we must struggle. But rather than focus on our sin and the pain it causes us in our lives, we must focus on the SALVATION THAT CHRIST HAS ALREADY WON FOR US! Rather than feel guilty about sin, we should embrace our sin, knowing that CHRIST HAS SAVED US FROM IT ALREADY! When we Sin, God picks us up, sets us on our feet and says, "Child, I have given you my very own Son, that you may have eternal life in Me!" We must embrace this Love of Christ. For if we could love with even a part of God's Love, we would find that there is more than enough Love to feed all the world several times over.

May God bless you all and keep you always safe! And may the protection of Christ's death and resurrection keep us always beautiful in the Eyes of the Father.