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
I heard a sad but very inspiring story which I will share here with you. A woman pregnant with her first child became very sick during the fourth month of her pregnancy. Her condition was very serious and the doctor soon realised that she did not have a chance of remaining alive herself unless he prescribed some medication that could have negative effects on the child. He made this clear and told the women that she needed to decide very soon as it was a matter or urgency It was also obvious that at this stage the foetus would not live on its own. After much soul searching on the part of the mother-to-be and her husband, it was decided that the treatment should be administered. The woman survived and the pregnancy came to its full nine months when the woman gave birth to a baby boy. She was overjoyed.
You may be surprised to read that this story came back to my mind as I reflected on the readings of this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. In the gospel (Luke 3:15-16,21-22), the Father used the same language about his Son whom he called « the Beloved ». Of course, Jesus had no blemish or defect of any kind. No, the story made me think of… ourselves and how the Father looked on us at our baptism! We were – we are – truly his beloved ones, we are precious in his sight and he loves us more than any human mother can cherish her new-born. He is not blind to our faults and defects, our sins ans miseries of all kinds. But none of these can prevent him from loving us. At times, we make serious efforts to ‘beautify’ ourselves in his sight, and surely our efforts must be pleasing to him as they express our desire to become more as he wants us to be. But, above all, it is not so much what we do that can make us more pleasing to him but what we allow him to do in us!