Dear Friends,

As I was preparing to leave as pastor of St. Richard’s, a parishioner came up to me and asked, “Do you know how much you are loved?” 

Do you know how much God loves you?  There’s nothing you can do about it--God’s love is unconditional.  The greatest evil today is to get people to think that God’s love is conditional.  That is not how God loves.  You do not need to prove yourself before God loves you.  No matter what troubles you are going through, God loves you.

If you are struggling, you are in good company.  You are in company with our Lord, Jesus Christ, who struggled with temptation, who struggled with false promises, who struggled with knowing who to believe and who to trust.  The last line of today’s gospel (Luke 4:1-13) is one of the most ominous lines in scripture.  “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.”  Don’t ever write off the hour of evil.  Don’t think you are beyond being tempted.  Even Jesus was tempted. 

Stayed tuned.  Jesus is not done dealing with evil.  Jesus is not done dealing with temptation and the conditionality of his father’s love.  How about you?  Do you believe in God’s unconditional love for you?  Or do you believe in God’s love if….

God loves you not because you are good, God loves you because God is good.

Peace,
Fr. Greg