Wednesday, November 12, 2014

The Generosity, the Mercy and the Love of Our God



Titus reminds us in today’s first reading, Titus 3: 1-7, that God, through His kindness and generous love, bathe and renewed us in “the Holy Spirit whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior. Prior to his death and resurrection,  Jesus reminded the disciples that they would encounter a hostile world, that witnessing to Jesus, proclaiming and living the Gospel, leaving a life of sin, could lead to persecution, rejection and, in some cases, to death (cf John 16: 18-27). “I did not tell you this from the outset, because I was with you; but now I am going to the one who sent me….[I]t is for your own good that I am going because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I do go, I will send him to you (John 16: 5-8).

The outpouring of the Spirit, our being bathe and renewed in the Spirit,  continues to this very day.  Day in and day out God, true to His promise never to leave us, sends the Spirit to guide us in all that we do, to, in the words of Titus, “open [us] to every good enterprise,” to give us the grace to exercise “graciousness toward everyone.” Day in and day out, persons who, like ourselves, “were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful…[toward] themselves and hating…[others], are drawn to Christ and come to realize that they are “justified by his grace and, [through God’s generosity and kindness, have] become heirs in hope of eternal life.”

How deeply to I realize the graciousness of God, the mercy of God, the generosity of God?  There is absolutely nothing I do that earns me the gift of justification, the heritage of eternal life.

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