Daily Reflections ...

“Unless you repent you will perish.” These would have to be some of the harshest and most challenging words that Jesus says in the Gospels. It challenges us on all levels of our humanity. This statement from Jesus seems to go against everything we know about the loving relationship of the Holy Trinity. Making someone perish, surely seems to go against the very nature of God, who is Love. So how can we reconcile these two differences.

Well, it all has to do with God’s ‘active will’ and God’s ‘permissive will’. God’s active will for us is that God loves us unconditionally, beyond anything that we as humans can comprehend. Furthermore, God wills that we share in His sublime act of love. However, while that is God’s active will, his permissive will allows for us to do whatever we want and engage in whatever we want.

So, we need to repent not out of fear of perishing or going to hell or any other reason, but out of Love. We need to repent because we love God so much that we want our entire being (our intellectual, physical, spiritual, and human aspects) so in line with the will of God. When this happens our very souls shake and shout with joy and we become infectious missionary disciples.

What is God’s will for you today? How can you love God more today than yesterday?

by Isaac Falzon