As disciples of Jesus, we are offered the gift of eternal and unconditional love
In the years since I made my first reconciliation, and in the many years as a priest, I’ve had the opportunity to see exactly what St. Paul meant in his letter to the Ephesians. He says that those things in us that reside in darkness become light once brought out of darkness. Let’s take a moment to reflect on the many secrets we have taken to confession or entrusted to a close friend.
When left in darkness, these secrets are burdensome and scary. They are the places where we are most vulnerable to hating ourselves, second-guessing ourselves, and feeling ashamed of who we are. Because of those dark secrets within us, we begin to believe that maybe even God can’t love us. All the Scripture readings for the fourth Sunday of Lent remind us of the power of the eternal and unconditional love we are offered through the gift of being one of Jesus’ disciples.
We may still be holding those deep and dark secrets within, choosing never to trust another person. As a priest, I am offered the opportunity to be both the voice of Jesus and the voice of the community in absolution, through forgiveness and absolute and unconditional love. It doesn’t matter whether I am sitting in a confessional in a parish church or in a corner in a prison — we each have parts of ourselves that need to be brought out of the darkness and into the light of love. Once we experience the freedom that comes from forgiveness and compassion, our human spirit wants nothing more than to make sure that other people experience the same gifts. In fact, others will be able to feel our compassion and openness, but they can also sense whether we are judgmental or have a spirit of rejection.
We don’t have to look far to notice that it isn’t just the darkness that hides within us; societal and familial evil are still prevalent. Many of us judge people by appearance, by the sound of their voice, by their country of origin or by their religion. Even though we are told that God’s love is unconditional and welcoming to all, we too often don’t convey that through our actions. As the Scripture says, it’s a lot easier to love those who love us back, but what good is there in that? Even pagans can do that.
In our current societal climate, what does it mean for Catholic Christians to love our enemies? What does it mean for us to be light in the midst of darkness? What does it mean for us to voluntarily offer our lives for the sake of those who hate us? Does this talk of light and darkness only apply to a certain group of people? Are we only supposed to love and forgive certain enemies and not others? Does every life still have dignity, or does that only apply to certain people who act a certain way? If it seems more convenient for us to kill somebody rather than love them, does that make it right? Just because someone is killing my character through gossip, is it all right for me to do that in return?
We are near the midpoint of Lent, and face the same challenges and invitations we did at the beginning. There’s no confusion about what Jesus says to do or how He invites us to live. We’re given the traditional practices of Lent, which include prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Are we exercising those spiritual practices in a way that will allow us to live differently when Lent is over? When Easter arrives, will the empty tomb simply mean the end of Lent, or will it mean each of us living a deeper resurrected life? The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Father Donald Wester is retired and serves as lecturer of homiletics at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.
