February 18
God's desire for our salvation
od's will is
to save us, and nothing pleases him more than our coming back to him with
true repentance. The heralds of truth and the ministers of divine grace
have told us this from the beginning, repeating it in every age. Indeed,
God's desire for our salvation is the primary and preeminent sign of his
infinite goodness, and it was precisely in order to show that there is
nothing closer to God's heart that the divine Word of God the Father, with
untold condescension, lived among us in the flesh, and that he died, suffered,
and said all that was necessary to reconcile us to God the Father when
we were at enmity with him, and to restore us to the life of blessedness
from which we had been exiled. He healed our physical infirmities by miracles;
he freed us from our sins, many and grievous as they were, by suffering
and dying, taking them upon himself as if he were answerable for them,
sinless though he was. He also taught us in many different ways that we
should wish to imitate him by our own kindness and genuine love for one
another.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman
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