Saturday August 17, 2024
Good News Reflections:
Making scripture meaningful to your daily life
by Terry Modica
Cast away from you all the sins you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. (Ezekiel 18:31)
Good News Reflection for:
Saturday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time
August 17, 2024
Today’s Readings:
Ezekiel 18:1-10, 13, 30-32
Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19
Matthew 19:13-15
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081724.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-august-17-2024
Here’s the real reason why sinfulness prevails
The Father always has our best interests at heart. The teachings of Christ are an embrace by Abba-Father’s love, and it is felt by those who want to be holy. Why then is there so much sin in the world?
When we think of God as a disciplinarian and a punisher, our natural inclination is to live in self-protection mode. We convince ourselves and others that what feels wrong is really not wrong. To avoid punishment (or so we think), we choose to believe that sin is not sin — which is the heresy of moral relativism. When we sin, we justify ourselves, blame others, and hide from our need to repent.
The word “repent” usually carries with it the feeling of condemnation, as if God were wagging his almighty finger at us, saying: “You are bad!” But we prefer to believe that we are really okay and we are loved no matter what we’ve done. In truth, “repent” actually means “to change direction” because we realize that where we’ve been going (or what we’ve been doing) isn’t good after all.
Here’s the real reason why sinfulness often prevails over holiness: The need for repentance can cause us to fear God — not the kind of fear that humbles us before God but the fear that makes us turn our backs on God.
The cure is to remember that sin is bad, not us. We are sinners but we are not Sin itself.
God made each of us good! Yes, even you and even the worst person in the world. Holiness is our core nature, our true nature. On the sixth day of creation, God said, “Let us make humans next — in our image, in our likeness.” God’s traits are at the core of our nature! He looked over everything he had created — including you — and declared it “very good.” (See Genesis 1:26-31.)
Sin — even when we don’t believe it’s a sin — interrupts our goodness. It interrupts our relationship with our Good Father. This is why he gave Jesus to us as our Savior. Jesus redirects us away from the path to Hell and toward the path to Heaven. Jesus took our sins upon his sinless self and nailed them to the Cross. He let our sins destroy him. Then he overcame this destruction through his resurrection. When we embrace this truth, we are set free to be who we really are (made in the image of our Father).
The root reason why sinfulness prevails so widely in our world today is because our cultures have abandoned the true meaning of fatherhood. In this environment, ideas about God’s Fatherhood are filled with wrong images about him. How can we give ourselves fully and freely to Father God if we don’t see him as he really is?
It’s natural (i.e., without conscious deliberation) to project onto God the fatherhood traits of humans. When they caused us pain or when they disappointed us or when they condemned us, if we didn’t separate our feelings about them from our image of the One True Father, we accidentally assumed that God is as imperfect as they are. It’s vitally important to heal from this and see God as he truly is. That’s why I wrote books about the Father’s Heart (ToTheFathersHeart.com).
The Father is holding out his hands, arms open wide, to pull you into his heart safely, securely, tenderly and forgivingly. Jesus is with you on this journey.
Want to help others find this same healing? Buy my book and give it away. Let’s change the world by spreading the truths about God’s good Fatherhood.
© 2024 by Terry A. Modica
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