He came to save

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

“In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests and the people added infidelity to infidelity…” this description of the escalating amount and degree of sins might every well describe our times. This rapid spread of evil is a very disturbing reality as such is definitely an invitation to tragedy. It simply seems to be a reason for us to call the Divine Wrath upon ourselves. God must be very angry with us. He must just be waiting for the right time to condemn and to punish us for our sins.

That is why today’s reading must come to us as a surprise: “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” This is so far from the image of a vengeful God that we try to draw for ourselves. “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.” This image of God who is rich in mercy is a very consistent image of the Lord in Divine Revelation. Even in the Old Testament, God reveals himself as a God who is slow to anger, rich in kindness. His patience is just so that he gave us his Son so that we may have an access to his mercy and forgiveness. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life.”

Surprising enough is the fact that we tend to project to God the cruelty which we have inflicted to ourselves. It is not God who condemns us but our sins. “Whoever does not believe has already been condemned because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Our sins have become our undoing. Sin has brought death into the world and persisting in sin will just keep us under the shadow of our condemnation. “And this is the verdict, that light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light because their deeds were evil…” Our sins condemn us.

But God does not desire our condemnation. In his love for us, He desires our salvation. In the diary of St. Faustina are written the words of the Merciful Lord: “Let the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy…Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to my compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy…before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice.” (Diary 1146.)

And so, let us believe in God’s only begotten Son. Let us trust in the love which God has for us. Let us trust his mercy in order to be saved. “For by grace you have been saved through faith…(this) is a gift from God.” Let us believe in him so that we might “not perish but might have eternal life.”

Jesus, I trust in you! O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!