In today’s first reading, Ez 18: 21-28, the prophet talks
about God’s ways, namely that if a wicked person turns away from his wickedness
to live a virtuous life, God delights in him or her, as God does not take
pleasure in anyone’s death. Also, if a virtuous person, Ezekiel tells us, turns
from virtue and chooses evil, that person is choosing death, a death in which
the Lord does not delight. It may be difficult
for us to think about any member of Isis, for instance, or any other hardened
criminal, turning from his or her wicked ways and finding favor with the Lord, as did the
good thief on the cross. The conversion
of any sinner, no matter what the wrongdoing might have been, delights the
Lord. Our wickedness saddens Him.
Our
salvation is the reason Jesus died on the cross. It is the reason Jesus was
obedient to the Father unto death. His
intent and the intent of His Father is that every person turns from evil to do
good, accepting the free gift of salvation.
That is what gives God joy, a joy in which God wants each of us to
participate for eternity. He will even
lengthen our lives in the hopes that we will in time return to Him in holiness
before we face our deaths. That is our God: a God of compassion, a God of
mercy, a God of love, a God who, on the cross, suffered severe thirst for the
redemption of sinners, the least to the greatest.
In light of God’s mercy, may I not stop praying for the
conversion of sinners, my own conversion and that of every person sitting in
our prisons anywhere in the world; the conversion of every person addicted to
evil, every person deceived by Satan's cunning lies and who, thereby, deny people
their right to be born, their right to justice, their right to being treated
with dignity, their right to freedom, their right to a just wage, their
right to live life fully and to make choices that are live-giving to them.
I am using your blog as a meditation during Lent
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