4-18-21 - 3rd Sunday of Easter - Fr. Leo

3rd Easter - Fr. Leo

“Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.  The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments.” (1Jn)

The first point of this quotation from 1st John is that, Jesus is the expiation of our sins.  This is an instruction.  We are to understand by this, that Jesus paid the price for our sins.  This conceptreflects the tit-for-tat thinking of the old law summarized in “an eye for an eye, etc. However, when we understand Jesus’ forgiveness, it is not a legal forgiveness, but the loving forgiveness of sin.  It is part of Jesus’ desire to share his own life with us and to help us live in the fullness of his Spirit.  It is the relational love of the spouse calling the betrothed to his side.

The second instruction of this quote teaches us, that to know Jesus, is to keep his commandments.  By this, we understand a way of life.  A way of being understanding, forgiving and thus loving.  Hence, Jesus died for all, not just for us.  God’s mercy given to us, is to be our mercy to others.  Only then can we know Jesus and share his Spirit by living in union with God passing beyond concepts and expressed truths, to the experience of God’s presence in the ground of our being.

One application of this would be to put aside our judgments wherever we may land on the Floyd -Chauvin case, and pray for mercy.  Mercy for Floyd, mercy for Chauvin, mercy for all.  Such prayer opens the way to a future where healing may take place. Mercy never condemns, it always restores us to the fullness of grace.