Do you believe God sent his Son to save you?
God’s care for God’s creation is extraordinary, isn’t it? The narrator of the Book of Wisdom marvels at the fact that God loves all things that are, for everything God created was intentional, including forgiveness and mercy: you have mercy on all because you can do all things, the narrator says. God’s imperishable spirit can be found in all things, and God’s intent is to draw all, even sinners or offenders, back to himself, that all might one day be in union with him. It is not surprising, then, that Psalm 145 extols God’s great kindness and compassion; God is gracious and merciful, faithful in all his words, and it’s up to creation itself to praise God’s name forever, recognizing God’s action at work in our lives, trusting in God’s faithful covenant with us.
If the Book of Wisdom affirms God’s love for all creation, Jesus’ death and rising is the very embodiment of this love, for Jesus dies for our sake entirely, not to change God but to change us and our understanding of his love for us, which has no limits. In Luke’s Gospel, the tax collector Zacchaeus is a beneficiary of that great love. Judged by his own community to be unfit for God’s mercy, lost because the world has rejected him, Zacchaeus nevertheless seeks to see who Jesus is, sensing, perhaps, that Jesus has come to save all. Zacchaeus is ripe for conversion, and ready to do whatever is required to follow Jesus: Behold, half of my possessions I shall give to the poor, he tells Jesus. Zacchaeus is worthy of his calling as a disciple of Christ, and Jesus explicitly recognizes this fact: Today, salvation has come to this house.
Later, Paul will express his hope that the Thessalonians may be similarly worthy of Jesus’ calling. The Thessalonians have been baptized into Christ; Paul prays that their baptism may be effective in making them one with Christ, transforming them, their lives, their focus in life, and how they understand themselves in the world. They are still in the world, but Paul exhorts them to allow all they do to flow from that identity in Christ, focused on the ultimate union they hope for without being too concerned that the day of the Lord is at hand. Jesus’ death and rising should suffice to assure them that, so long as they remain worthy, they too will know perfect union with Christ when that day comes, the ultimate manifestation of God’s extraordinary care for God’s creation. Until then, may the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in you and in all!
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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