“Brothers and sisters: If God is for us, who can be against us?” This powerful declaration of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans should be a source of great consolation to us in Lent.
God is for us. God loves us, cares for us and is committed to us. This love for us, this care for us, and this commitment to us is without conditions. It does not depend on whether we feel worthy of this love, of this care, of this commitment. It does not depend on our goodness. God is simply for us – God is committed to us. And this ‘us’ includes each and every one of us! God is for each one of us. God loves you, cares for you, and is committed to you. Think of that! In the most difficult times of your life, you have the assurance, the promise that God is with you. Even when you have sinned gravely, God loves you, God cares for you and God is committed to you.
There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the second part of the promise of St. Paul. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Each of you know far better than I that life, at times, can be incredibly difficult. There can be times of serious illness. There can be times of unemployment. There can be times of financial crisis. There can be times when your children are using drugs or alcohol. There can be times when a child becomes pregnant. These are all times when we can find ourselves questioning the love of God for us, the care of God for us and the commitment of God to us. In these times, we have to call to mind how God has been present in our lives in the past so that we have no reason to doubt that God is present to us now in this moment of crisis. God’s presence may not be as tangible and powerful as we desire, but we can trust that God is with us and that God does love us, God does care for us and that God remains committed to us.
In this Lenten season, one grace that we can seek is the grace to have a profound belief and trust that God is, indeed, for us and that through this belief and trust we can persevere in faith even when the trials of our lives test our faith.