Sometime ago a friend gave me a book on Christian spirituality entitled: Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them. How true it is! Each of us has a history, has quirks and inconsistencies, faults and failings; each of us carries baggage.
There are times when we can be painfully aware of that baggage. Then the danger is that we hear the Word of God as condemnation, harshly telling us what we are not… rather than revealing what we can be, and as an invitation to respond more deeply to God’s liberating love.
God’s Word confronts and challenges me but never condemns me – there is always the promise of new beginnings. With Christ’s goodness every moment can be a fresh start.
Love draws, grace invites, mercy attracts…..
It is the knowledge that I am so loved and capable of much greater goodness that creates the desire in me to change. My own experience is that the more I believe in my inner storehouse of goodness, the more I want to become truly good.
Whatever spiritual practises you have committed yourself to this Lent, may they help heal the wounds shame and self-rejection inflict.
May these days of grace open you more joyfully to a love no betrayal can destroy.
