Fugitives and exiles

IN a certain sense, that´s what we all are. We are fugitives and exiles from God, from our true and ultimate dignity as children of God, because of our sins, infidelities and other forms of human miseries.

Like our first parents, Adam and Eve, banished from Paradise after committing the original sin that we now all inherit, and Cain who after slaying his own brother Abel was condemned to a life of a runaway, we too have been alienated from God with all the consequences that such alienation entails.

As such, we lost the state of original justice and the many preternatural gifts that went with it. We are now subject to death, pain and suffering. Our faculties have been damaged such that instead of pursuing what is true and good, we now go after something else.

As such, we tend to have some guilt feelings, and with that condition, we can weave a variety of possible reactions. We can feel bad, insecure, afraid, ashamed. Pristine joy and peace flee from us too. We can be on the run, homeless, hiding, or when that is not possible, we can wear guises, and play all sorts of tricks and games to cover ourselves.

Yes, we can also go to great lengths to sweeten, rationalize and forget our state of separation from God. We can even choose to go against God and decide instead to create our own reality—a fantasy or illusion actually—according to our own designs and specs.

This was done in the episodes of the Tower of Babel and Sodom and Gomorrah. And the crazy drama continues up to now, reprising the same theme of rationalization and self-justification under different forms and ways. Sad to say, we can use our God-given endowments of creativity and invention for this purpose rather than for going back to God.

In all these wretched situations, let´s never forget that God continues to love us and will do everything, including sending his Son to us and that Son offering his very life for us, to bring us back to him. In fact, that´s the only way we can go back, because on our own, we simply could not. On our own the only thing possible is sustained separation.

This abiding love of God that intensifies further the greater our sin is, is a truth of faith dramatized in the life and death of Christ. It´s a truth that should become, with God´s grace and our effort, an invincible conviction in us, regardless of the buffeting trials, doubts, fears that can come to our mind and heart.

We need to strengthen this conviction daily and try to live out its consequences as faithfully and promptly as possible, because first of all it is a genuine truth, not a sweet-lemoning, and second, because it truly helps us in our daily struggles.

We need to be extra confident of the effectiveness of this truth. God never abandons us. It´s rather us who can abandon him. We need to avoid falling into that latter state in spite of what we may consider strong reasons to think so.

Yes, in spite of our continuing miseries and infidelities, God is most willing to bring us back to him. Never forget the parable of the prodigal son. On our part, let´s try to be simple and humble, to act like a child who in spite of breaking a house treasure always knows his parents will understand him.

God, in fact, gives special attention to those who love him less. Because as Christ said: ¨Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and bad, and rain upon the just and the unjust.¨ (Mt 5,45-45)

Never entertain the idea that God will not forgive us nor love us, or worse, that he does not exist. We have to insist on our faith that strengthens our hope and shapes the way we think and react to events in our life.

In this, we have to remember that our spiritual life is a matter of having to begin and begin again, because to fall, to commit a mistake, to fail to fully correspond to God´s goodness, to doubt and fear, are a predicament we are most prone to have.

Though we may feel like fugitives and exiles in the world, be convinced that God continues to be close to us.