O, the treachery of man's willingness to disobey God; How much the Lord still loves him?

O, the treachery of man's willingness to disobey his God; How much the Lord still loves him?

It isn’t through the trials and convictions that man presents himself  to God, it is the mercy he gives to each and how man accepts the outcome.  If the Crucifixion was not enough to convince our weaknesses of how much God loved us then the price we might have paid if not for the Passion of Christ should always be in front of our sense of Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa:  "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.”

If you went through catechism classes and never understood all the tenets of the Church, it is still the grace that God gives to us just because he loves us that counts as credit for our faith.  We can watch the trials of people who deliberately murder their children, or through abortion someone else’s children, we may still never understand what entices people to do harm to anyone else since we all were created by the same God who loves each one equally.  

What can we attribute to Cain killing his brother Able?  Wasn’t the ability to give back to God from their specific treasures of work enough?  Jealousy of course because Cain brought an offering to the Lord from a tiller of the soil, while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock.  The Lord looked with favor on Abel on his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not.  Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.  So the Lord said to Cain; “Why are you so resentful and crestfallen?  If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door:  his urge is toward you, yet you can not be his master.”  (Gn 4: 2 - 7).  We all must be careful that envy is one of the worst evils that promotes murder, hatred, and pride; and creates all kinds of treachery upon our souls and can, if not corrected, plummet us into Hell.

Reiterating the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector in the temple.  The Pharisee with all of his giving attitude put down the simple tax-collector because of his sin.  The tax-collector bowed his head and said to the Lord; “Forgive me a sinner’ and went home satisfied.  Humility is the only attribute the Lord looks for.

Guilt?  A sign of each person that fails to honor God; Salvation?  The one attribute that is handed to each one who finds his/her cross and climbs upon it with Christ our Redeemer.

Ralph B. Hathaway