We have heard it said many times that Jesus died for us as a reparation for our sins.  At mass we say that “by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free.”  But how many of us really understand how his death has saved us?
 
I have always accepted that Jesus died for us but for a long time I didn’t know what that really meant.  I admit that I had a very bland understanding of his purpose on Earth and I thought his intention was to teach us and lead us to our Father in Heaven; and in doing so he was put to death because he upset the authorities.  I had no idea of just how his death itself was necessary for us.  I’m quite certain that there are many believers out there who are in the same boat as I was. 
 
Let me try to explain what I now better understand about his death.
 
Sin is weighted against the person being sinned against.  Sin against a loving mother would carry more weight than sin against an acquaintance, and the person who sinned against their mother would want to make greater reparation to her than a similar sin against an acquaintance.   A crime against a leader of a country is treated with greater gravity than a similar crime against an ordinary resident.
 
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they sinned against a divine and perfect being.  This sin passed down through their descendants as original sin and severely damaged man’s relationship with God.  Sin against God by man needed reparation by man, but how could an imperfect being make reparation for sins against a perfect being?
 
Hebrews 9:22 says that “under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
 
Before Jesus’ death, animal sacrifices were made for the forgiveness of sins.  However, these sacrifices were a temporary and imperfect redemption.  The perfect redemption was through the blood of Christ, for as Hebrews 9:12 states that “he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” 
 
So blood was required to repair our relationship with our divine God, but it had to be the blood of a perfect sacrifice; a sacrifice that no one could ever make because that sacrifice could only be made by a perfect being.  And God loved us so much and wanted us to be with him in Heaven that he chose to come down in the form of man, to suffer and die; to be that perfect sacrifice that only he could be, in order to redeem us and make it possible for us to be with him in paradise.
 
In Jesus’ own words “Greater love no man has than that he should lay down his life for his friend.”

CPG

“The sacraments cannot be understood in the abstract, neither as bare precepts nor an abstract ritualism. In this sense, therefore, it may not be a mistake to understand sacramentality as God's involvement and loving interaction with humanity. This is in fact a grace-filled encounter.”
 
The above passage leapt off the page for me because next month my husband and I celebrate thirty years of marriage.   How I wish we had understood more about the sacramentality of marriage than we did in the early days!  Like many young couples in western society, we loved each other and we were ‘in love’, and we loved God, so we married in the Church. However, in the beginning we didn’t fully appreciate that in Christian marriage a couple do not receive the sacrament from God but that we are the sacrament to each other.  Had we been fully conscious of this fact right from the start, I know we would have thought twice before saying or doing hurtful or thoughtless or selfish things to the other.
 
Regardless, God slowly revealed through his grace to each of us as individuals and then as a couple, that despite our own private motives for marriage we had been brought together by God for his purpose.  Initially we each had professed to love God and each other, but had never actually, willingly surrendered our lives as a couple, to God until much later in the marriage when we saw, with great awe, and then acceptance and welcomed, the unique and very distinctive signs and symbols of God’s presence in our lives.   Through his divine grace, God has taken us to a deeper level in our relationship, as a couple, with him to understand that a sacramental marriage is not about us – it is about us believing that we belong to God as a couple and that we have been brought together by God for his purpose, to fulfil a mission together for God.   In us, he wants a living sign and symbol of Christ’s love for his Church in everything - always.  As for the times of suffering in our marriage, as Bishop Robert Barron says, the suffering in our marriage is Christ living his life in us, because suffering is the price of love.
 
KC

I was going through the video recordings of my nephew and his wife’s wedding reception. It was a wonderful wedding with almost every member of the family attending. My parents’ 60th wedding anniversary was about two weeks earlier and so their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren from all over the country was in attendance for both special occasions.
 
As I was viewing the video of the crowd on the dance floor I noticed at one point that my mother seemed to be dancing on her own next to a group of girls comprised mainly of the bridesmaids. What surprised me was that one of the bridesmaids suddenly came up to my mother, gave her a hug and pulled her in to join their dancing circle. This girl knew my mother only as an acquaintance and as the grandmother of the groom.
 
I immediately felt a strong wave of affection for this girl. It didn’t matter that I didn’t really know her, but her tenderness to my mother gave her full marks in my approval of her.
 
It suddenly dawned on me that perhaps this is a bit like how Jesus would feel for someone who gives recognition to his mother. Why I say ‘a bit’ is because, although I love my mother immensely, I am not a perfect son and my love for her, abundant as it is, is not perfect. Perfect love is really something none of us can truly comprehend because none of us can truly love perfectly no matter how strong our love is for the other person. Jesus, on the other hand knew perfect love; he felt perfect love; he was perfect love. 
 
As a perfect son he felt perfect love for his mother and therefore he would feel infinitely more appreciation for someone who gives recognition to his mother than my fondness for this girl for her actions toward my mother.
 
Could it be that anyone who believes that Jesus would be upset with someone who honours his mother does not really know him?

CPG