Lent 2

Lent II (John 3:1-17) “For God so loved the world…”

God is love.

Jesus is the Beloved Son of God. The Son came to Earth to save, not to condemn. If you are looking for a god of wrathful condemnation then the Christian Faith is not for you. If you practice condemnation then you are not following Christ.

The prophet Isaiah said of the Christ, the Messiah, a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not break. Sadly, many people who claim the name of Christ see a bruised reed as an invitation to attack and condemn. Others see the dimly burning wick as the invitation to criticize, bully and intimidate. This is not the Way of Christ.

The Way of Christ infuses the soul with a growing love for God that produces the result of kindness and compassion for other people. The Way of Christ crafts a soul that seeks the guidance of the Holy Spirit to correct its own faults. The Way of separation crafts a soul to seek to correct what it perceives to be the faults of others.

Jesus came to save. His name means savior. He saves us from the original choice our species made to separate from God. He saves us from our tendency to berate and belittle each other. He save us from forming our souls in the paths of pride, arrogance and the will to power.

During this Lent, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to convict us of where we form our souls in the pride of condemnation. He invites us to surrender that pride to the Holy Spirit to be transformed in the love of God the Father. That love is the Real Presence of the One God in our midst.

People fail to see God through a deficit of love. People fail to experience God through a surfeit of arrogance. The solution to fear, anxiety, frustration and depression is not to blame and condemn other people for our own emotional reactions. The solution is to enter into the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the blessed sacrament of Divine Love at the altar of sacrifice.

Jesus calls us to sacrifice our demand to be right. Jesus asks us to sacrifice our sense of entitlement to condemn other people.

The basis for how we experience the reality of God is how we treat each other. The beloved apostle John wrote: how can we say we love God if we do not love each other. If we bring forth from our souls condemnation we form our souls in condemnation. We miss the grace. We miss the compassion.

Jesus asks us to embrace the transforming grace of his sacred heart. Surrender condemnation, pride and the demand of self-will. Allow the Holy Spirit to immerse your soul in kindness and compassion.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn. He sent His Son into the world to reunite us to the eternal life of the Triune God who is love.