GOD WANTS ALL TO BE SAVED
(Wisdom 12:13, 16-19, Psalm 86, Romans 8:26-27, Matthew 13:24-43)
It is not the intention of God that the sinner should die in his sins but rather should repent and be saved. He hates sin but loves the sinner whom He created in His own image and likeness. This is the core message the readings of today present to us to reflect on. God is patient with all of us no matter our state of sin. His primary goal of creating us is for our salvation and not for our damnation: this was an action of the devil who deceived our first parents and introduced sin into the world. The importance of man in God’s creation is emphasized more in the second account of creation by the Yahwist who puts man at the centre of creation. Hence creation was for the sake of man (Gen 2: 4b-24; 3:1-23).
The first reading presents God as one who uses His power to save and not to punish. Even His punishment was for the good of His children Israel whom He wanted to turn from evil and be saved. God does not take pleasure in punishing His people if not for their own good.
Jesus uses the Parable of the Weeds in the gospel to teach about the patience of God for all us especially those sometimes we classify as harden criminals. The Parable of the Prodigal Son and some other parables were also used by Christ to teach the people especially the Pharisees of the mercy and love of God towards the sinner. The Pharisees and the Scribes did not consider people they saw as most sinful such as tax collectors and prostitutes to be individuals God cares about. In fact, they were not to be seen as children of God because they were considered as very sinful human beings. But He made it clear to them during His public ministry that He came for the sake of the sinner and not for the righteous. The healthy does not need a doctor only the sick person (Matt 9:13).
My dear friends, people need time to change from their bad ways to become good examples in the community. Sometimes we are culprit of instant judgement just like the Pharisees who only saw themselves as the beloved children of God and not others which was the perception of the Israelites. Experience has taught us that conversion of human beings differs from one person to other. Whiles one person may take some short time to repent others may take a long time to respond to the word of God. God does not give up on us so why should we give up on people?. As St. Paul indicated, the strong must support the weak because we are not the same and we can never be the same (Rom 15:1). As Christians we are to be patient with the weak and help them to also grow as we are also growing. This is a difficult task as human as we are but not difficult to God. His grace is abundant for us to carry out this task.
Brethren, who knew that St. Paul can one day become the greatest missionary of all time who will contribute tremendously to Christian growth. Please do not easily write people off because that person can one day become a great instrument of God. There are countless examples that we can cite for knowledge sake. Donnie McClurkin, the American gospel musician was one time a highly practising gay but when he had the touched of God see the wonders God is using him to do for His kingdom. Some of us when people even repent we doubt it just like the case of Paul when some of the disciples were doubting his conversion (Acts 9: 26-32). Some of us start to give names to such people.
Since we are all having the tendency of sinning, then it behooves us to bear with those we think are very sinful people. God loves all of us and wants us to be saved. I do not think you alone want to go to heaven. Help someone to join you to the blessed place prepared for the righteous. God wants all of us to be with Him in heaven and that was the purpose of sending His Son to the world to salvage sinful humanity. May God help us to participate in this saving mission which He has entrusted to us. Amen
Have a blessed Sunday and a favoured week ahead!
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
