Friday of Week 1 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
St Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop, Doctor
Hebrews 4:1-5,11 | Psalm 77(78):3-4,6-8 | Mark 2:1-12
Be careful: the promise of reaching the place of rest that God had for the Israelites still holds good, and none of you must think that he has come too late for it. (Hebrews 4:1)
Yesterday, I learned that Dylann Roof, the young white supremacist who killed nine black American churchgoers in cold blood, was sentenced to death…and that one victim’s family members surprisingly oppose that sentence.
It may also surprise you, dear readers, that the Catholic Church has never issued a blanket opposition to the death penalty, though individual Popes have opposed capital punishment, on the grounds that a lesser sentence like “life without parole” gives the offender time and space to properly repent and reform.
But even a death row inmate, during the last seconds before end-of-life, can repent and obtain forgiveness from God. It won’t save him in this life, but it’s the first step to reunion with the Father in the next.
Right?
Would you believe that there are Catholics who do not believe the above, that there are some sins that are simply unforgivable?
Would you believe that they are both right and wrong in their belief?
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
We’ve been taught from the beginning that God can forgive anyone, even the vilest mass murderer. As fallible humans, our forgiveness of each other certainly has its limits, but God has none.
We’ve also been taught that a death-bed baptism, with the subject maintaining a proper disposition of wanting to be united with the Father, forgives all past sins.
So what on earth could escape the Father’s all-encompassing forgiveness?
Just one thing: the refusal to recognize our sinful nature and turn back to God. The Almighty forgives all…except those who don’t want to be forgiven.
This refusal can stem from several sources. The one that’s related to today’s scripture is despair, the erroneous belief that we’ve sinned too much and too often for God to possibly forgive it all, so why bother repenting at all? We’re going to hell, so we might as well enjoy the ride!
I came close to this stance in my college days, feeling lost and alone in a secular world that only believed in itself.
But in the words of today’s reading, “none of you must think that he has come too late for it.” God has never given up on us, so why should we give up on our struggle to reach Him? The promise of salvation, of “reaching the place of rest that God had for the Israelites” still holds good.
Jesus saw to that by giving Himself on the cross for the souls of all humans past, present and future, even blood-soaked Hitler-level maniacs, or Dylann Roof.
Who are we to reject such a gift, but ungrateful bastards?
Almighty and ever-living God, we know that You are ever-loving and ever-forgiving, but we sometimes lose hope in our salvation along our rocky journey through this life. Send us the Holy Spirit to remind us that You are always waiting patiently for us to return to You in humble penitence, and that Your healing mercy will do the rest. Amen.