A Malady and a Remedy

Gospel: John 16: 5-11

Any honest person becomes aware of the fact that sin is a real thing in one's life.  We find ourselves conscious of the fact that we have harmed other people, harmed ourselves, harmed all of creation and its creator.  The Spirit that dwells within each one of us speaks to our conscious and reveals to us the sin in our lives, the sin that demands justice, the sin that deserves condemnation.

However, that same Spirit does not leave us in the depths of our depravity and condemned status.  The Spirit stirs within us an awareness that if sin is an existent reality that there must exist a being who can forgive sin and who can make us whole again.  This awareness then leads to remorse and repentance, a deep longing for forgiveness, mercy, and healing.  

We are then brought before the One who offers us forgiveness and mercy with only one condition: that we then go forth to offer forgiveness and mercy to others in the way that it has been given to us.  And so sin, justice, and condemnation are transformed by the love of God into loving deeds, mercy, and liberation.  This is the process of divinization, our ongoing life in the Spirit.