A perplexing issue of one's faith is accepting that no matter what we do, no matter who we become, we remain a son or daughter of God. There is no unforgivable sin except the sin of presumption against the Holy Spirit. We can do the most heinous of things, even deny God's existence, we remain in Christ's reach for mercy in His washing us with His own Precious Blood. History has several good examples of people doing terrible things to others and destabilizing society, but is it impossible to have mercy on these people? The question eventually becomes: Can a person who does evil things be forgiven and saved? Is forgiveness outside the realm of possibility for God, for us? If not for God, why is it that we find so difficult to be merciful toward others?
As scripture say, all have sinned and fallen short of
God's glory (Rom 3:23) so that all of us are at some time in our lives
potentially (and unfortunately all too actually) capable of real evil. Yet no
matter how depraved people may become, they remain always images of Christ the
true Image of God. That image-quality may be soiled, tarnished, obscured and
disfigured, but is never wholly lost, never totally destroyed.
The more we
commit sin the more we weave a web around ourselves, voluntarily blocking out
his light. That is why in the incarnation God punched a hole in our self-woven
cocoon and thrust in a hand to drag us out: that is why Christ descended into
our hell of God-forsakeness - so that we could not go on pretending to
ourselves - and in that way justifying our own ghastliness to ourselves and
others.
Meeting Christ in His Mysteries
Father Gregory Collins, OSB
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