The 1st Sunday of Lent hits you pretty hard with the sinfulness of man, leading off with Genesis 3 and Psalm 51. In some circles, St. Paul gets critiqued as being negative, dour, or moralistic, but his 5th chapter of Romans that we hear right after that is the definition of good news. The gift is not like the transgression; the "physics" of sin are not like the dynamic of grace. Truly, there is a wideness in God's mercy.
There are definitely a lot of personal stories in this one. This week I was thinking about how when you have a retreat day or a witness talk, you don't get convicted by hearing the theology of sin, you get it from hearing a person's stories and having that resonate with your own brokenness. So, we still have to be nerdy with Romans 5 a bit, but theres some big stories in there too.
Wonderful reflection! It reminds me of a blog post I read many years ago. I wish I could remember the link so I could give the author credit. He was discussing how Peter and Judas both sinned big during Holy Week. Judas betrayed Jesus and Peter denied his best friend on Good Friday. The author reflected on what happened next. Judas believed that his sin was bigger than God's merciful love. And that was his biggest sin. Had he asked for forgiveness, He would have been given it. But he believed in his brokenness more than in God's mercy. Whereas Peter, who had left Jesus to die alone on the cross, accepted God's mercy. And he let God use Him for good going forward. That belief and trust in God's mercy was the difference between Judas and Peter's fate. May we all believe and trust in God's merciful love like Peter!
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