Does God's Love Embrace Sinfulness?

2000 years ago Our Father in heaven gave to us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to serve as our Messiah, providing each one of us who would accept His love and guidance in every generation hence forth the means to personally reconcile and reunite with Him. The indescribable degradation against God’s will committed in mankind’s betrayal and sinfulness was so great that the only sacrifice deemed adequate to offer the Father on behalf of mankind that could overcome our sinfulness was the sacrifice of His own life purely out of love and selflessness for man; His mortal life sacrificed for man’s eternal life. Jesus sacrificed Himself by submitting Himself to the most horrid of torments, tortures, humiliations, degradations and the most agonizing of deaths man could conceive of, to be performed by the hands of the worst of mankind for the salvation of the reverent of mankind. And all any person would have to do to accept this forgiveness and salvation is to freely accept God in the love of Christ and live by the calling Jesus taught us.  

As vast numbers of Catholic and non-Catholic Christians in other countries today are being shot to death for remaining devout to their faith while attending Mass in their churches, many American Catholics are embracing their own adaptation of Catholicism. Yes, many of us who are free to worship Christ faithfully do so casually according to our own terms as children with their parents, teens and adults, young and old, are gunned down side by side while in prayer in their pews because they chance to worship God among those who hate them merely for living their Christian faith.

There is a secular ideology clouding and even eroding Catholic minds today, it is not new. It has been bred in secularism over the last few decades and is spreading into the minds of even some of those otherwise sincere practicing Catholics. It can enter in for any number of reasons and it is the premise that because society at large adopts viewpoints and practices that it claims are “rights”, those viewpoints must then be acceptable for everyone, thus requiring a watering down of Christian principles to suite what society declares to be “politically correct”. We tend to forget however, that it is our own personal liberal views that after spreading among the majority become society’s views at large. Once the majority has adopted certain notions we then elect our government representatives supportive of the same ideologies. In other words, we as individuals spread our notions, see them become progressively more popular then believe these notions must be acceptable because “society says so”.

We are a nation formed only a short time ago, founded under the principles of God’s law and moral virtues. As a country we are and always have been predominantly Christian forming this country accordingly. Prior to the massive culture change born of the sexual revolution, the majority of the American people endeavored sincerely to live their Christian faith. Part of expressing one’s Christian faith included respect for one’s self, respect for the God given gift of human life and respect toward others while one had the right to expect the same consideration in return. Today self-respect has been greatly replaced with self-indulgences; respect for others has been shredded and consumed by what we now call “political correctness”, which in reality has become so twisted that political correctness is to “respect”, what “Frankenstein” is to human life. What should be frightening to those who truly believe there is a God, is the fact that our nation today has the moral virtues of Sodom.

For many Catholics, political correctness now denounces adherence to scripture and Church authority as following “blind faith”, “out dated customs”, or “conservative extremes”, calling for a more up-to-date self-determined defining of the life God calls us to. Obviously this is done selectively. According to those who adopt this notion it then serves as their justification to claim independence from unpopular Church teachings and authority. Such issues as the denial of the existence of sin, rejection of our accountability for serious sins before God, the rejection of the principles and value of the sacrament of marriage, the use of artificial birth control and abortion inducing drugs, abortion, same-sex marriage or any number of other issues. But this ideology does not stop there. It is an erosion of Christian principles that falsely allows for the public support and promotion of social practices not only rebuked by the Church and condemned in both Old and New Testament scriptures, but in some cases declared perverse against nature, science and humanity throughout the history of mankind. It is becoming ever more popular to promote these notions, and even more arrogantly they are being promoted as reflective of God’s love.

 Some of us have become adverse to religious and moral guidance in our discernment of right and wrong, righteousness and sinfulness. They conclude that our culture’s liberalism warrants we be freed from the “old ways” of scripture and Church teachings claiming them less binding, ancient or old fashioned, suggesting the Church is in need to update her teachings to coincide with our culture’s permissiveness as though Christ’s teachings and the church should be adaptable to popular opinion in any given era.  Perhaps because there have been cases of corruption within the Church at times throughout her history some Catholics assume the Church authority as a whole has failed and we as individuals now surpass her guiding authority. But such a conclusion is just another reflection of the lack of knowledge too many Catholics suffer from when it comes to scripture. 

Today there are those who deem themselves more highly guided by the Holy Spirit than the Church Jesus established and commissioned to guide us “until the consummation of the world”. Yes, Jesus empowered His Church as His teaching and guiding authority until the end of time, however, many forget what that means. Perhaps there are those who truly believe their righteousness entitles them to receive revelations from God surpassing that of the Church of the Paraclete. But who then is so confident to be willing to stand before Christ and tell Him we no longer need His teaching and guiding Church even though we have not reached the end of time (although we may be closer than we imagine); Who can justifiably suggest that he or she is now more empowered in knowledge and good conscience through The Holy Spirit than even His Church and the word of scripture?

Some suggest the Church can fall to sin during which times we must determine for ourselves when our holiness surpasses the Church. Can this be true? No; reasonable knowledge of scripture tells us Jesus does not change but remains the same always. It tell us there will be corrupt and sinful men both within His Church and outside His Church at times but His Church as a teaching and guiding authority will not fall to the gates of hell; that we are to persevere in our faith; That Jesus alone will reconcile all things in heaven and on earth through Himself and to Himself and that includes His body, the Church. These scriptural prophecies have occurred from time to time and are factual. Scripture has proven itself true over and over again. The Church has seen sinful men abuse their positions of authority at times throughout her history but never has the teaching and guiding Church itself fallen to or taught the word of God wrongly. The Church authority has been abused and misguidedly judged at times for the actions of the sinful few but the Church as it was commissioned by Christ has never become corrupt, only some within her. Just as Judas betrayed Jesus as one of His apostles and we remain faithful to Christ, we are called to remain fast in our faith forewarned of times of corruption in His Church but instructed to persevere.

Jesus made a covenant with His Church that can not be broken and that included its lifetime lasting until the end of the world. However, the covenant man enters into with Christ we often break for the sake of human notions. Today, this confused state of diluted faith blended with secularism disguises itself as Christian by claiming one simple principle above all else; That because God loves everyone and calls us to love each other, we are not to determine what is sinful but embrace the sin along with the sinner. We do this by supporting and promoting sinfulness in the guise of God’s love. But God does not love sin, nor does He forgive sin where living in sin is chosen and no repentance is sought. Christ’s proclamation introducing the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven first calls us to “repent”. The Gospels shows us the path to forgiveness. The Catholic Church presented us the Holy Bible and teaches and guides those who accept Jesus’ calling. Do we now believe because God loves us even when we sin that God's love encompasses all sinfulness as well? That His word is flexible to the point of distortion even opposing itself if necessary for the sake of popular notions? This can never be the case. Those who would suggest such a position claim for them self the authority Jesus empowered only to His Church as His teaching and guiding voice. What the Lord reveals to us on a personal level will never conflict with the teachings of the Church or scripture if indeed it is revealed by the Lord. He does not forget nor will He contradict Himself. When we believe God has revealed something to us that is in opposition to scripture or Church teaching, it is time to consider who the revelation is truly coming from.

As we know from scripture, God is all loving, this is true and we thank God He so loves us. It is also true we are called to love one another and treat others as we would wish to be treated in the love of Christ. But we are to discern what is evil and sinful and avoid taking part in such betrayals against God. If we go beyond committing the sin to actually supporting or promoting sinfulness, we then assume the responsibility not only for our own sins but for the sins of those we mislead. We are to love the sinner but hate the sin. We are to promote the repentance of sin and realize God does not offer forgiveness where there is love of sin and no forgiveness desired. We are not to judge anyone’s soul but to judge what is threatening to the soul and certainly to avoid engaging in evil’s success.

If we love others as we are called to, we will express that love by living a life reflective of the calling of Christ that others may realize for themselves God’s love, His forgiveness, His Mercy, and the gift of salvation offered to everyone who seeks Him. If we love others, we want the very best for them and that should be eternal life in Heaven. For those in their times of crisis and those fallen to sin we pray for their enlightenment. But it is not love that supports another person’s falling deeper into sinfulness nor is it Christianity that teaches support of sin in the love of God.