God’s work is salvation: 4th Wednesday of Easter

“And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47).

We find the echo of these words in the very words of the church in recent documents: “The church judges no one because “God alone is the judge and searcher of hearts, for that reason He forbids us to make judgments about the internal guilt of anyone.” (Gaudium et Spes 28 ) and “The church proposes; she imposes nothing” (Redemptoris missio 39).

Neither Jesus, nor His body, the church, condemn or impose. They simply propose what they see, as their way of life. What makes of these views something more than just one more opinion among many, is the authority in which they are made. Jesus’ authority comes from His union with the Father, the church’s authority from her union with Jesus Christ.

The judgment of condemnation won’t come from a God who only offers salvation but by the power that has been given to us: the freedom to reject God’s merciful invitation to his banquet.

Not to condemn, but to save: 2nd Wednesday of Easter

“For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through Him the world might be saved,” Jesus said (Jn 3:17). It cannot be more clear. God offers only salvation and not condemnation.

It is man with his choices that bring condemnation into the world when he rejects salvation. This rejection can be an open rejection of the faith, or, what is the same, a rejection with a life in contradiction with the faith: “Everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it.” (Jn 3:20)

But if God, Jesus and the Church offer only salvation, then where does the world’s perception of a condemning Church come from?