God desires that we have life, that we have eternal life with him. Ezekiel speaks for God, saying that if the man who has done evil genuinely repents of what he has done, he will be totally forgiven. “All the sins he committed will be forgotten from then on; he shall live because of the integrity he has practiced.” What a wonderful message of hope we have today. That is a message that speaks to us all during the Lenten season. “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” That is what we heard declared to us on Ash Wednesday when we received ashes on our forehead. Needing to repent, to turn away from our sins, to reconcile, and to have a conversion of heart are common messages we hear in our Catholic faith. We need to remember that in Ancient Israel, the people believed that they were not only guilty for their own past sins, but that they were also guilty of the sins of their parents and their ancestors. We are familiar with the passage in John’s Gospel in which Jesus is asked whether a man who was born blind had this affliction due to either his sins or the sins of the parents. Conditions such as paralysis, leprosy, and deafness were considered punishment for past sins. We can imagine how such a belief would weigh on a human heart. Yet, the message we get from Ezekiel today and the message we get from Christ’s Gospel give us hope and encouragement on our journey as we try to turn away from our sins. I saw a quote posted on the internet that said: Repentance may be old-fashioned, but it is not outdated so long as there is sin.” May we hear this call to repentance today.
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