When telling something important to someone, we are inclined to repeat it.
We want to make sure that the message has been heard, understood and… received.
The person may exclaim: “You told me already…”
To which we tend to reply: “Yes, but I wanted to be certain that you have grasped what I mean”.
This situation came to my mind as I read the 2nd reading of today’s celebration (Ephesians 2:4-10).
Paul, writing to the first Christians of Ephesus tells them:
“It is by grace you have been saved”.
A few lines below in the text, we find exactly the same words:
“It is by grace you have been saved”.
In one translation, Paul goes on telling the Ephesians that they should not take the credit for this.
While another version says:
“This is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God,
not by works, so that no one can boast”.
Paul adds that we have not been saved by anything of our own.
No good works can obtain God’s salvation.
At the very beginning of the reading, we are told:
“God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy”.
This should change the idea of God that some of us may have received in the past, and still hold on to.
That of a God who is severe, exacting, and never satisfied with what we do for him.
As if we were the slaves of a demanding taskmaster.
God loves us with a generous and merciful love.
He delights in showering his gifts on us.
What he expects from us is to delight as much in receiving his gifts.
The story is told of a vision that Margery Kemp had one day.
She was an English mystic of the 14th century to which God reportedly said:
“Margery, do you know what pleases me most of you?
Not your prayers,
your fasting,
or your sacrifices,
but rather that you believe I love you”.
Would it be possible that… the same is said of us?…
Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French, at: https://image-i-nations.com/4e-dimanche-du-careme-annee-b-2024/
Source: Image: Scripture Images