God's awesome mercy!

In today's second reading, 1 Peter 1: 3-9, St. Peter gives praise to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for "his great mercy" in giving "us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for [us] who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time."

WOW! THE MERCY OF GOD! First of all, God gives us a new birth, a second birth, if you will, and this is birth into eternal life, a life that is "imperishable, undefiled, and unfading." That immortal life,which does not fade in brilliance, is "kept in heaven" for you and me.  If it is kept in heaven, no one can defile it, neither you nor me nor anyone else.  And, since it is kept in heaven, no one can destroy it or steal it from you or me. The only way we lose it is by denying Jesus Christ, our God or denying God PERIOD!  Secondly, you and I "are safeguarded through faith," a faith freely given us in our baptism! Safeguarded for what? For "a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time."  We are in that final time.  You and I might not recognize salvation that comes to us moment by moment. However, God is at work saving us all of the time through the good we do to others, the love we show toward them, our acts of forgiveness,  and through the good others do to us and the love they express to us by how they treat us as well as ask and give forgiveness. We are also being saved by our faith and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ hidden in everyone and every thing! And by our gratitude for God's goodness, the goodness of others, our own goodness--all gifts from a loving, caring, compassionate God of mercy!

Thank you, Lord!

An Imperishable Inheritance Kept in Heaven

In today’s first reading, 1 Peter 1:3-9, St. Peter blesses the Lord, our God, for his great mercy toward us, namely, giving us “a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for [us]  who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.”

Wow! God’s unsurpassable mercy  was revealed in the Garden of Paradise when  our first parents disobeyed God by succumbing to Satan’s deceitfulness and false promises—something we do over and over again every day of our lives!  We are sinners who prefer our will to God’s, sinners who easily get caught in Satan’s lying strategies and his efforts to lure us away from the inheritance God has promised us and, in fact, secured for us by His Son’s death and resurrection, that is,  by His obedience to the Father unto death.

God held nothing back to guarantee us the inheritance of adopted daughters and sons—an “inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven” for us.  God eagerly awaits the moment of our “salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time,” the time when each of us will leave this earth through the door of death and rise to new life, eternal life, in Christ Jesus!

That is my hope! What is yours?