When someone gives us something for nothing, it’s difficult to simply receive the gift. We hesitate to receive something freely given. Yet that is precisely what Jesus did for us in his Passion, Death, and Resurrection – the free gift of his saving love for us - and we ought not to hesitate one bit in accepting it. Do you believe in God’s saving love for you, personally? The gospel this past Sunday said, “For God so love the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” It is by faith that we have access to eternal life.
In Sunday’s 2nd Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, St. Paul writes, “God who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ.” He explains what he means by describing God as one “who is rich in mercy” by saying, “because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ.” St. Paul reminds us that God’s sole motivation is “because of the great love he had for us.” Unlike the guy with the goods in Paris, there is nothing to doubt or about which to be suspicious in God’s free gift of mercy. God’s entire motivation for being so rich in mercy is due to his immense love for us. But have you accepted this great gift? Have you allowed yourself to receive the great love of God shown to us in his great mercy? Have you allowed yourself to be affected by His love?
St. Paul goes on to say, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.” As Americans, it doesn’t seem right that we should be given something we don’t deserve or that we have not earned. For example, if I walked up to you and handed you a $100 bill, chances are the first thing you would say to me would be, “What’s this for?” And if I were to reply saying, “I just want you to have this,” you might then say, “Why are you doing this?” You might think, “there must be strings attached.” It seems that in order to receive something we have to understand the reason why it is being given to us. How can this be?
While receiving things from others, from the goodness of their hearts, may be awkward or unsettling, I submit that we find it even more difficult to “receive” the love God has for us by means of his mercy and forgiveness. There is a subtle sense in people that they don’t “deserve” to be forgiven. It is as though they have not done enough (penance) to deserve God’s pardon, yet it cannot be earned. Some might insist that God should make it more difficult for us to be forgiven. Fundamentally, we must comprehend that what God offers us is truly free and unmerited. We see this in the story of the Prodigal Son. When returning to his Father, the young son says, “I no longer DESERVE to be called your son.” Yet the Father had already forgiven him and rejoiced to welcome him back home. Here we see that God’s love and mercy is unmerited. We just have to accept it and receive it!
St. Paul underscores the importance of this by saying, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.” In other words, we have to BELIEVE in the love God has for us – the free gift of his love and mercy – for it is in no way by anything we do that we are saved, “not from our works,” but from our faith and trust in God’s love. This tends to be our human nature – a reluctance, perhaps even a refusal to accept the free gift of salvation that is ours in Christ.
Sometimes this can be seen in our insistence on confessing past sins (already confessed), over and over again. Certainly, if a new occasion of that sin has occurred, we should confess it. But restating past sins simply because they bother us does not mean we are still culpable for them. It might mean, however, that we have not yet accepted the grace and mercy of God for those sins.
When it comes to accepting free gifts – consider how you respond to compliments. Someone says, “I like your new hair style” And instead of saying, “thank you,” you say something like “yeah, but it’s too short.” We might conclude all kinds of things like, “they have poor taste” or “they are just patronizing me” or “they’re just trying to be nice.” Oddly, we find it hard to believe that they actually like our new hair style, or whatever else they might be noticing about us.
Accepting God’s love for us and receiving it can be more of a challenge than we might like to admit. In 1 John 24: we read, “We have come to know and believe in the love God has for us.” Here we see that the first step is knowing of the love that God has for us. The second step is believing in His love. Then we must decide to accept his love. This really is not very complex. It is the building block of most human friendships. I experience the love of another and believe they are sincere. Then, affected by their love, I accept their free gift of love for me. In doing so, I make a response to their love.
When God, who is rich in mercy, pours out his love for us, the only appropriate response is to accept it with gratitude. If someone offers you a $100 bill, accept it, receive it, and consider it as training for receiving the ultimate gift of salvation, Christ won for us! Accept it!
