Holy Week — What God Wants

On March 30, I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession or Penance as it used to be called). After I had confessed the sins I needed to, the priest said, "God doesn't want your good works. God wants you." He went on to explain what he meant and I can't reproduce it precisely, but the basic point is that it is us he wants to have with him. Our works are passing things, but we are not. Dean Grey, of Exploding Doughnut, told on his blog of coming on the Chicago Children's Choir rehearsing in a room in the Chicago Cultural Center. They sang a gospel hymn with a refrain which included the words, "I love you. I need you to survive." Maybe that's supposed to be us talking to God. But it is also how God feels about us.

It has been a commonplace point in Lenten preaching to say that our sins are what put Jesus on the cross. The priest I went to made that point with respect to my sins. Then he went on to say, "and Jesus says it's okay." God wants me, and if Jesus needs to go to the cross so he can have me, it's okay. God loves me, and you, and needs us to survive. So he'll pay any price to have us. So it's okay that we put Jesus on the cross. The priest had said in a talk he had just given, that as Good Friday and Easter approach, we should ask ourselves, do we believe what God says. Do we trust his love?

So that's what I hope you'll be thinking about as this week unfolds. Is there a God whose love for you is so great that it's okay that Jesus died, if only he can have you? Do you trust God? Do you trust his love? Will you let him have you?