FORGIVENESS HAS POWER TO TRANSFORM OUR LIVES

                                                                 Fr. Johann Christoph Arnold

The forgiveness of sins that Jesus offers is so powerful that it will change a person's life completely. Everything that makes us fearful or isolated, everything impure and deceitful, will yield if we give ourselves to him. What is up will come down, and what is down will come up.This change will start in the innermost heart of our being, and then both our inner and outer life, including all our relationships. will be transformed.

Whether or not a person has been transformed in this way shows up most plainly when he or she faces death. Those who have been at the bedside of a dying person will know how absolute, how final in its significance, is each person's inner relationship with God. They know that in the end, when the last breaths are drawn, this bond is the only thing that counts. It is the life - task of every person to prepare to meet God. Jesus tells us how to do this when he says, "Whatever you do for the least of them you do for me." He also says, "Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." I have personally experienced at deathbeds that if a person has lived for others, as Jesus did, then God is very close to him in the last hour. I have also experienced at the hour of death the torment of those who lived selfish and sinful lives.