Day 175: Depart From Me Lord For I am a Sinful Man
Luke 5:1-11
There is an idea among people who have just heard the Good News and for those who have heard it but have fallen away from the faith and are now returning that they are too sinful and that they have done so much wrong that God wouldn’t want them. This is not the case. God has chosen His people and will embrace them out of Love. God has called Matthew, who was a tax collector, Mary Magdalene, a prostitute, Lazarus, who was dead, and so many other people who thought they were irredeemable. There is a place for all of us in the House of the Lord.
In today’s Gospel, Peter tells the Lord to depart from Him because he is sinful. One only needs to look at the life of Peter to see what Jesus can do with a sinful person. He revealed God and human nature to Peter. Jesus elevated him and gave him the keys to the Kingdom. He was one of the Lord’s best friends.
“I am not a Saint. Unless you think of a Saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”
Nelson Mandela
Man is not a complacent being by nature. From the moment of conception their is growth and development, both physically and cognitively. A child grows in knowledge by their experiences in the world. A person grows up in a family and in a greater community because people cannot not grow and flourish alone. No person is unchangeable. Even if a person’s beliefs never change, time still moves forward and the person ages.
God has called all of us to not remain in sin, but to partake in the promises and treasures that He has set aside for us. Some people don’t like religion because it doesn’t match their way of life or thinking. The purpose of religion is to call humanity higher, nit just leave them where they are. Humanity has a natural end and a supernatural end. There is the end that nature has prepared, meaning death, and there is the supernatural end, which is the end above our nature, meaning not solely a physical end, but also a spiritual one; however, the supernatural end does not negate the natural end, but rather assumes it. A seed can fall upon the ground and remain a seed, or it can die in order to flourish and become something great and uniquely beautiful.
Prayer: Lord, help us to know Your mercy and to know You have power over sin