The Essence of Love and Forgiveness

Several months before my Son died he asked me what were the most important things in life. It was an easy question to answer and for him who was suffering from addiction to alcohol he needed that for solace and I needed that to remind me of the purpose of Christ’s Incarnation.

Look back on any one of your children as they were growing up and hear some of the words that come forth from their mouths and you might say, “where did that come from?” It isn’t because they are bad or losing their faith, it just comes from the territory we call life.

With compassion and patience we will make it our duty to correct their speech, but with love that covers a multitude of misunderstandings and forgive them once they understand its unpleasantness.

So it was when God created humanity and already viewed the probability of unpleasant activities that would tempt and take control of his children. What did he do that would counter the sin that these precious children would fall prey to? “I know,” says the Lord. “To understand and share with each of them I will take upon my divinity their humanity and be the very essence of love and forgiveness.”

If I was to suddenly appear before them as their God they would not believe me since a spiritual being doesn’t understand what the human species lives with in the world of evil temptations and the pleasures that promise us victory over this body that had nothing to do with its existence.

But once I Incarnate myself, encounter temptations as they do, suffer and die because of my love, and forgive each one in spite of their sinfulness, then they will believe and turn back to me.

Through the anticipation during an advent of hope and while keeping our hands out of the cookie jar, we shall understand what forgiveness means finding a love that brought it about by a selfless entity we call Christ, who is God, and who saw this need to offer us eternal life because he loved us from the very instance he created us.

What I related to Paul, my son, are the words that imply perfection of the human soul that has found an Eternal God who never once questioned our weakness; he instead created the only way to his heart through our heart accepting this essence that can only come through his love.

The closer we get to his Nativity, which is the culmination of his Incarnation, let us also live with love for everyone and be forgiving to all our brothers and sisters. We do not have to accept their sinful ways but never hate the sinner. Christ, the tiny baby whom we adore, went to the Cross because of love and forgave each of us because of his mercy. Each time we look into the crib of the baby Jesus we should also envision the Cross of Calvary standing behind this Son of a merciful God.

Ralph B. Hathaway