Reflections | GOD’S EXPECTATIONS

Listen as Monsignor Don Fischer reflects on how God separates the sin from the person.

Good morning. I want to talk to you about what God expects from you and from me. When I was growing up, somehow I was told very clearly one thing that God did not tolerate, did not want to be around was sin. He hated sin. And unfortunately, when I heard that, that he hated when we did something negative to someone else and all that, then I started thinking, well, if he hates the sin, he must hate the person that does it.

He doesn't hate the person that does it. He can't hate a creation that he made that is so beautiful, a reflection of who he is. We are made in his image and likeness, and that means we have within us a capacity to love and to forgive and to be close to other people, to be one with Him. And we have all that.

But we also have a thing called our weaknesses, and they're essential to any kind of growth. And yet, what do we do when we feel ourselves caught in some kind of awareness of a sin? That is, we are ashamed. We are angry at ourselves for doing it. We were told by some voice in our head that if God sees this in me, if He knows this about me, he's going to pull away because that's what human beings do.

We're surrounded by conditional lovers, which is just part of what it means to grow and evolve. We move from loving people who deserve it to loving people just because they are who they are. That's when we become more like God. So my point is this: When God looks at us and you know that people will say, “he is not pleased with our sin,” yes, he's not, but he's never not pleased with us. And what he wants to do is show us something about the sin that we need to see more clearly. it's called repentance. If you see what you've done and you see where it came from, perhaps a wound inside of you, and you see the negative impact on it, it's not going to be something you're going to do again.

Repentance is grace being poured into you that enables you to see the impact of a choice that you thought at one point was good for you, but found out it was horrible for everybody around you. So all he wants to do is to help you to see the sin that is there. And you can't do that unless you're being looked at by God who loves you, hates the sin, doesn't like that it's there.

But never does it tarnish his enthusiasm, his divinity and Jesus filled with the desire to say, “Listen, I want to show you what you're doing.” And when you see it for what it is, there's something in you. A spark of life, a quality of love that will kick in and you will be transformed. But is it easy to see our sin that honestly? No. Impossible, unfortunately, if you don't believe in God's love.

Have a great day.

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Kyle Cross