EASTER MONDAY: Overcoming Evil, who am I talking about?

There is evil in the hearts of many people.   Whether it is abuse physical and mental of a child, whether it is rape and sex enslavement of women, whether it is beheading and crucifixion of Christians in Syria, whether it is murder and hate in so many parts of the world, this is not what God wanted when He created man.   Many may well put the blame on God Himself and ask why did you make human beings capable of such evil.   If you are good then  everything you created should be good and if man is not good then You are responsible.  It is not without its logic.

About three thousand years ago a Jewish scholar was pondering the same question.   Guided by the evil around him and stories that had been passed down from former generations he wrote the book of Genesis.    No God had not created out first parents prone to evil but He had given them free will to serve Him.    Their souls were immaculate and they were as saints, close to God and indeed enjoying a wonderful union with Him.   The scholar compared it to a beautiful garden in which all the beauty of nature was found and God walked with his new creation - mankind.   But somehow it came to an end.  Some calamity happened and man lost his holiness and his nature became self centred and his eyes began to covet for himself and pay any price for power.    His nature had changed as a result of that calamity he could now so easily commit evil and this weakness was called 'original sin'.   So mankind began a life separated from God in which the return to that first holiness was impossible.

But God did not abandon man.   He promised a Messiah, a Redeemer, who would by his actions make it possible for goodness and holiness to overcome evil, a light of goodness would shine in the darkness and the name of that light would be love.    "For God so loved the world that He gave his Only Begotten Son".   So that was the motivation of Jesus when he suffered and died - love.

But he did not by his death bring all mankind back to the communion spoken of in Genesis.   He did not destroy free will and make us all robots.  His Salvation is a gift each individual must accept on his own account by believing in Him.    This would transform him or her into a person capable of love and giving the love of God to others.    Love is what makes man higher than the angels.   He can be changed by God into someone on fire with love and reaching out with that love to others he can know the joy of not the absence but the presence of God.    And only a person with love will want to be with God.   That is the point of Hell.   Those who spend their lives in hate, revenge, and despising others can never be happy in the presence of God.   Their presence in Hell is their choice and it is not a punishment.   "Those who believe will be saved, those who believe not will be condemned"   Heaven is a possibility for every one - but so is Hell.    
 

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