Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent & Easter
by Ron Rolheiser, OMI

“Come, let us return to the Lord,
for it is he who has torn,
but he will heal us;
he has struck down,
but he will bind our wounds”.

(HOSEA 6:1)

“There comes a point in life when our spiritual struggle is no longer with the fact that we are desperately in need of God’s forgiveness, but rather that God’s grace and forgiveness is overly lavish, unmerited, and especially that it goes out so indiscriminately.

God’s lavish love and forgiveness go out equally to those who have worked hard and to those who haven’t, to those who have been faithful for a long time and to those who jumped aboard at the last minute, to those who have had to bear the heat of the day and to those who didn’t, to those who did their duty and to those who live selfishly.

God’s love isn’t a reward for being good, doing our duty, resisting temptation, bearing the heat of the day in fidelity, saying our prayers, remaining pure, or offering worship – good and important though these are.  

God loves us because God is love and God cannot not love and cannot be discriminating in love. God’s love, as Scripture says, shines on the good and bad alike. That’s nice to know when we need forgiveness and unmerited love, but it’s hard to accept when that forgiveness and love is given to those whom we deem less worthy of it, to those who didn’t seem to do their duty. It’s not easy to accept that God’s love does not discriminate, especially when God’s blessings go out lavishly to those who don’t seem to deserve them” (29).