Contents
- Human being, unable to find happiness and anxious about the precariousness of his life, tries to appropriate it at the expense of their neighbors.
- God tries to reassure his creature of his unconditional love. Whatever mistakes humans make, God’s gift of love is always renewed for each of his children.
- To forgive means to repeat, to renew, the gift. Finding hope for forgiveness from God, drawing on his infinite mercy, also means becoming a source of love for others, trusting in an inexhaustible gift.
Related articles
- Augustine on happiness
- Genesis 1:2 Ruah, the spirit of God is feminine
- Genesis 3:1-24 The fault
- Genesis 4:1-15 Cain and Abel
- Luke 23:32-43 The evildoer forgiven on the cross
THE GIFT OF FAITH, HUMAN FREEDOM, FOR-GIVENESS
“We love one another because he [God] first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Here is the premise: God’s gratuitous love for all. The eternal gift of divine benevolence, of his divine, paternal, and maternal love for his children, irrevocable. (See Genesis 1:2 Rouah, the spirit of God is feminine) Then, by breaking the filial, trusting relationship that would lead him, guided by his father, to perfect love and bliss, the human being goes off alone, lost, on paths that separate him from his neighbor. (See the article on Genesis 3:1-24 The Fault and Genesis 4:1-15 Cain and Abel). Deprived of trust in the eternal and unconditional gift of God’s love, rivalries, jealousies, and attempts to ensure the continuity of one’s own life at the expense of others ensue. If life is no longer considered a gift from God, then it is in the image of man: corruptible. If the spirit is not connected to the divine breath, then all that remains is the fragility of a human breath that is fading away. From this comes the human desire to appropriate this life, to acquire certainties that reassure him against his precariousness. It is at this point that human beings enter into a mercantile mentality towards God, under the illusion of possessing what they have obtained through their own merits or through their work. It is the search for eternal bliss in what is not capable of providing it. (See Augustine on happiness)
Human beings’ free will therefore does not consist solely in being able to free themselves from God, from the filial and gratuitous relationship, but it will need all its faculties, all its human will, to realize its mistake: there is no happiness outside of the trusting filial relationship. Separated from their neighbor, outside of the fraternal relationship with the rest of humanity, there is no happiness.
This is where God’s for-giveness comes in, that is, the eternal and infinite repetition of the eternal gift of divine love for his children. To for-give means to repeat the gift over and over again.
But man must first realize his mistakes, his straying, the impossibility of being at peace if his relationship with God and with others is damaged. It is when his own faults begin to appear that the critical moment arrives: how can he hope that they can be undone? If someone has damaged the bond that unites him to his neighbor, his brother, sister, wife, mother, or father, if that bond is wounded, how can he heal it? Sometimes it seems impossible to repair the division, yet what is impossible for man is possible for God. This is when the divine word becomes necessary, the good news of the renewal of the filial and eternal covenant that assures us of possible forgiveness. The divine voice, by assuring us of for-giveness, offers hope beyond all hope: the irreversible gift of divine sonship. Throughout the Bible, it tells us again and again: you are my beloved son, I have never abandoned you. He is the good shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep, he is the father who waits for the return of his son.
However great our faults may be, John the apostle assures us: “If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts” (1 John 3:20). In response to this hope, divine word and action intervene to reassure us and lead us to him. “My Father is always at work ” (John 5:17), says Jesus. His word acts continually like the good shepherd who comes to seek the lost sheep. He comes to the aid of the sheep that realizes it is on the edge of the precipice and no longer knows how to advance, how to move. He offers hope, assurance, the promise of his forgiveness. He gives rise to the hope of possible forgiveness from the father. It is the parable of the prodigal son that shows both the joy of the younger son’s return and the suffering and anger of the older son who does not rejoice or celebrate, trapped by his own mindset.
The father repeats to him: “Son (τέκνον), you are always with me, and everything I have is yours ” (Luke 15:31). This is the proposal of faith formulated by God, that is to trust in God’s unconditional love, in the gift of his love always offered, in his forgiveness, in the renewal of the covenant, in the affirmation and revelation of his eternal love, never withdrawn from man.
It is at this moment that the divine intervention takes place, it is at this moment that he provokes in us this faith that can make us believe in the possibility of forgiveness. It is at this moment that God is active, always at work: he always reassures us, through the words of the prophets, through the suffering of his Son, who shows us the extent of his love and the mercy of the Father for his children, by the gift of his life. He can offer his word to each one of us, at the moment when we turn to him having lost hope in the possibility of forgiveness. When the human being recognizes his mistakes, the misfortune he has brought upon himself, and finds himself in a state of extreme affliction, wanting to make amends for his errors: it is at this moment that the divine word intervenes, expressing to the person his forgiveness, that hope which is beyond all hope, engendered in the person by the divine work of Christ Jesus.
It is in this sense that God saves whom he wills, not in the sense that he might not offer himself to those who ask and that he might refuse his forgiveness, his fatherly love, but in the sense that he waits for man to return to him, in the sense that at the moment of showing him his love, that is, when man repents, converts, changes the direction of his path and seeks salvation, it is then that God’s will to save him becomes clearer. Indeed, as in any relationship between two people, the interaction is continuous, each one thinks of the other and is in dialogue with the other, even in his absence, but we recognize the true friend when we are in need, he is always there and always acts for us, but there are certain special moments when we recognize the importance, the impact of the bond on us.
Thus, this divine action, our continual connection and interaction with him, appears in all its glory in Jesus Christ, who reveals the Father to us, his way of acting toward us, his mercy and affection. “I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:30). He came to reassure us of God’s will to save us. He is Yehoshua, which in Hebrew means “God saves.” He is salvation, the hand offered to Peter when he is drowning (Matthew 14:27), he shows his glory on Mount Tabor (Luke 9:29), and he gives his peace to the apostles on the day of his resurrection (John 20:19).
The divine will to save humanity when it strays, like the shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep, has been manifested. But God is powerless in front of the man who closes his heart, who closes every path of access to him. Divine intervention, which provokes our faith, is what gives us access to the hope of forgiveness, that is, the gift of paternal love, the spirit that makes us sons and causes us to cry out, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). He inspires faith in us, that is, trust in the filial relationship, by giving us proof of his attachment; he assures us and reassures us of the unconditional gift of his love. “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24), that is, the Holy Spirit has already been given to you, the spirit of filial adoption, Jesus tells us in his Gospel.
But the relationship is alive when there is interaction between two, when there is also a step by man towards the friendship of God, the gift of his life, this gift repeated and re-offered to man infinitely, his for-giveness. This path is traced from the present moment, can begin anywhere, always: “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” says Jesus. This path of man towards God is also taken when the evildoer crucified next to Jesus addresses him: the innocence of Jesus appears to him, he recognizes the love of the Father, the love he has placed in his children. (See Luke 23:32-43 The evildoer forgiven on the cross) He sees perhaps this love for the first time, perhaps with the same wonder as a parent who recognizes his own resemblance, his own traits or attitudes in his child. The crucified evildoer recognizes this love that God has placed in his sons. Perhaps he sees it for the first time and realizes that this love really exists, that it is true. He glimpses Jesus’ benevolent gaze toward his persecutors, he sees how much Jesus loves us, and he finds hope that he too can be welcomed into this love: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” (Luke 23:42) he says to Jesus. He glimpses the source of life, of inner happiness that springs from the crucified Christ, the tree and source of life in the earthly paradise revealed, reopened to humanity. Christ means “anointed,” penetrated and filled with the infinite love of God: he responds to the evildoer, he restores his confidence, he actively transmits faith to him, he reassures and comforts him, he transmits the spirit of consolation and defense to the Father through his own gestures, his actions, his presence. This spirit speaks to the Father, reminding him that this evildoer is his son. It is the spirit of love, paternal and maternal, the spirit of the filial bond that unites us to God in an exchange that is beyond our understanding. It is the mysterious bond that unites parents with their children, mysterious because it is too great to be fully grasped, to be com-prehended: the bond that unites us all to one another, the unbreakable bond that unites each one of us to God.
“Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus restores hope, and the man, who turned to God in an extreme gesture of seeking salvation, will continue his path. It is like when, in extreme distress, we call on our father or mother for help, even if they are not physically present. Thus, God responds to human appeals and in him, in his love, we also find the love of our earthly parents. He restores confidence and love. Those who do not want to be saved, God does not want to save because he cannot violate human freedom and free will. God ardently desires their return and seeks their love, but cannot impose himself or force them. We know that what God wants is this: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). God cannot want what would take away his children’s freedom. He will trust his children to the end; he will not fail. In this sense, we must understand that if God wanted to save man despite his will, then man, deprived of his identity and reduced to a puppet, would be saved immediately. But that is not God’s plan. God’s plan gave man freedom; he gave him his image, his spirit, a spirit of freedom and love. “Love and do what you will,” said St. Augustine. This freedom makes us in the image of God; it is inviolable. God wants to save all his children, but there is no salvation except in the reconquest of our freedom: go and liberate, untie men from their bonds, bonds in which they have imprisoned themselves. It is a matter of regaining the freedom of the children of God, and God cannot want what would cause us to fall from this rank; he cannot want what is contrary to our will; he cannot take back the supreme gift that makes us in his image. Let us also understand in this sense the expressions that are also found in other religious texts, such as the Qoran, for example. Nothing escapes the divine will, his plan of salvation for all men. This salvation includes the freedom of man. The divine plan is that we can be saved, and it is up to us to welcome this gift, freely and without cost. To welcome such salvation, Yehoshua, which means God saves. A salvation that speaks to human beings in all languages, whose spirit is spread over all people of every language, people, and nation. The Holy Spirit gives life to every creature; it is the link that unites each creature to the source of life.
Freedom, moreover, is also the essential condition for love. We can only choose freely to love; if we were forced to do so, we would not be able to experience true love. Just as God freely chooses to love us and give us his life, so too we who are called to experience the greatest love and the greatest joy can only freely choose to love and give life in turn. It is true that the freedom to love means that human beings can also choose evil: violence, hatred, war. But without freedom, we would never know love. God trusts human beings: he knows that we will find and recognize where true happiness lies, since he, God, loved us first. He will never abandon us; every day he will show us the path to the greatest love.
It is also important to understand in what sense the texts of several religions affirm that nothing can be done or exist outside of the divine will. In Paul’s letter to the Romans 11:36, it is said: “Everything comes from him, is through him, and is for him.” ” How could divine will not desire the salvation of all people? How could it not desire the gift that makes each person in the image of God, in their capacity to love as God does? How could it not desire this gift, which must be accepted as a gift and not taken away from divine will, as recounted in the book of Genesis 3:1-24, The Fault. God could not want what is against our own good, and this good transcends us, is always irrevocably offered to us. “What is impossible for man is possible for God (Luke 18:27): thus the unknowable becomes known. In itself, it is unknowable, but knowledge of it is offered to us, the experience of its happiness is shared with us, its spirit dwells in us, the gift has been made, it is up to human beings to welcome it in all its greatness, in order to bear fruit, each one fulfilled to his or her measure, “a hundred, sixty, thirty” (Mark 4:20). The extent of God’s gift is revealed to us by Jesus on the eve of his sacrifice: “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many” (Mark 14:24).
Biblical texts
Luke 7:36-50 The forgiven woman
Luke 15:11-32 The Prodigal Son
Luke 23:32-43 The forgiven evildoer on the cross
This article is an in-depth study of The Filial Relationship and is related to other in-depth articles, which are: