What else should we consider in these days before the Holy Week, as we look forward to all the services and in the end to the feast of the Resurrection, the victory of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son and Word of God, over sin and death and the power of Satan? In the meditation for today I would like to turn to a verse from the first letter of St Peter. He says,
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8
How many different ways can we reflect on these words. Love covers a multitude of sins.
In these days before Holy Week, we can remember what God has done in his love for us to cover the multitude of our sins. We can consider how deeply he loves each one of us. In his love he became a man, while remaining God, and experienced all that belongs to our humanity apart from sin. He was hungry and tired for our sakes. He was without a place to call his own for our sakes. He was insulted and beaten, and finally nailed to a cross for our sake and because he loves each one of us deeply and so that our sins might be covered and forgiven, and our life be made new in union with him.
Since God has done this for us in Christ, by becoming man in his deep love for us all, how much more should we live in such love for one another if we have been given life in Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit. God is love, and if God himself, the Holy Spirit, has become our own life in our baptism and chrismation, and in our participation in the holy mysteries, then we must become all love towards God and towards one another.
God will cover our sins if we turn to him with repentance and choose to life a life of humble obedience to the will of God by his strength and grace. He will cover our sins if we are willing to cover the sins and weaknesses and mistakes of others in love. In the prayer which the Lord Jesus taught us, he promised that our sins and weaknesses would be forgiven if we are willing to forgive and cover the sins and weaknesses of others.
It is love for others which allows us to forgive whatever others have done. It is love for us that allows us to receive the forgiveness of God for our own failures. If we have no love for others, in our families, our beloved congregations, at work and in our studies, then we cannot receive the love of God, because our hearts are hard and cold and not yet softened and transformed by love.
Whatever others have said or done so that we feel that we have been sinned against, if we love deeply then we will be able to forgive and cover all of these sins and weaknesses and we will discover the presence of God who is love with us and within us. If we do not yet have such love then we must ask God to change our hearts towards others, so that we might also be forgiven.
God has done all that we need for us in his deep love for each of us, so that we can find forgiveness and new life with God. In these days before the feast of the Resurrection we must find grace to forgive every person that we hold some grudge or hardness of heart towards, turning to God in repentance for our own sins, so that there is only love within us for those with whom God is making us one Body in Christ. It is love that unites us, and love that forgives all that others have said or done, and love which transforms us so that Christ is all in all and his resurrection power is made present among us.
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