A LOST SAVIOUR....A MISSING SAVIOUR?

"Be holy as I am holy; be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

We wouldn’t take this seriously if it weren’t for the fact that these are the Words of God to be found in the Sacred Scriptures which He inspired. Isn’t our Heavenly Father asking too much of us, expecting too much from us? Not really, if we remember that God asks of us nothing that is impossible, but makes what is difficult possible.

The call to share in the life of God who is holy, or, better, to live by God’s gift of His very self to us, must be the core of our Christian spirituality – the very essence of the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As God’s beloved children in our own lives we are meant to mirror the holiness of God’s own life!

What dignity God has conferred on us, His beloved children for whom He wants so much, from whom He expects so much! Sadly, for all of us there have been times when we have been a disappointment to God. We have to ask ourselves, "How much or how little it has meant to us that we have offended the God who has showered so much love on us?"

I dare to suggest that regular, humble self-examination and self-accusation, together with the recognition of our personal sinfulness in thought, word, deed, and omission, are not prominent on today’s Christian landscape. Far too seldom do we beat our breasts and mutter, "Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault!’

And yet, without a sense of sin there can be no sense of the need of that repentance, causing us to yearn for His forgiveness, nor the felt need to be reconciled to Him, by Him. In such a vacuum what sense is there in singing, ‘God of mercy and compassion, look with pity upon me?’ What motivation is there to recite the much loved Jesus Prayer, 

'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner?'

Could it be we have come to resemble those who regarded Jesus as stimulating company but never saw themselves of needing from Him any spiritual healing? To the likes of these Jesus said, 'It is not those that are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have come to call not the upright but sinners to repentance,’ (Lk. 5.31).

Much as I dislike it, I have to suggest our generation is on the way to losing its sense of an urgent need for a Saviour. And yet Sacred Scripture describes the mission of Jesus in terms of being Saviour.

‘She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins,.' ( Mtt.1.21); and ‘For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved,’ (Jn.3.17).

As I see it, in our promoting the New Evangelization we simply must restore Jesus as Saviour to the place where He belongs, at the heart of our Christianity. Then and only then will we, as regular Church goers, appreciate the need for, and the beauty of, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Sacrament of the Forgiveness of Sins.

Perhaps now you will understand why I entitled this meditation:

A LOST SAVIOUR? ~~~~~~~~~ A MISSING SAVIOUR?

I ask you, ‘Have we lost Him, as our Saviour? If we have, when we have such beautiful liturgies and devotions, do we really miss Him as our Saviour.

Peter Clarke O.P.