Sadly…no.
At least not instantly.
But here is some of what Jesus does offer us by way of the Good News.
If you make a firm and fundamental decision to follow Jesus.
If you repent for your sins.
If you are truly sorry for your sins and make a firm commitment to try and not to do those sins again.
Then…Jesus will forgive your sins. All your sins. Right then and there.
Just like that. Just like love.
But…
But…
Just because Jesus saves us. Just because he covers up our own iniquities with his perfect righteousness. Just because he opens up the Gates of Heaven for us. Just because in a sense he makes us, the unloveable, suddenly lovable.
Doesn’t mean that Jesus also makes us Loving. At least not right away.
You see, that takes longer. And we all know it.
We get out of confession and we feel great. The slate has been wiped clean, our sins have been forgiven and sanctifying Grace has been restored in us and we are ready for bigger and brighter things. Then we go out to our car and try to get out of the parking lot when somebody cuts off of. Our initial instinct is to cuss them out and wonder why they are such a moron. But, because we just got out of confession, we have to tame and control our instinct, our habit. We have to overcome it.
You see, we spend a lifetime developing unloving habits, building up our unloving muscles so to speak. Just because Jesus forgives our sins instantly doesn’t mean he makes us super loving creatures instantaneously.
Lets puts it this way.
Lets imagine that getting fat was a sin. And lets say Jesus were to come down one day and forgive you for getting fat.
That would be awesome, except…that you would still be very much…fat. Jesus doesn’t change that part of it. At least not right away.
You see, after we accept Jesus’s forgiveness, his Salvation, his Grace, into our lives, then we have to follow Jesus. And because Jesus loves us first, because he reaches out to us, because he moves with Grace towards us, we are then Moved to love him back. And slowly, steadily, over time we start to develop new muscles, new habits.
Our unlove muscles go away and our love muscles build up.
This is why Catholics believe in purgatory.
Christ’s Salvation ‘gets’ us into Heaven, but it doesn’t make us good lovers, at least not right away. That takes time.
And as we become better lovers, our experience of the Communion that Heaven offers us will grow.
So, we don’t love Jesus in order to merit Salvation. (We can’t merit Salvation). Jesus offers us Salvation because of his own love, his own merits. After we accept Salvation, we are then so moved by our thankfulness and love for Jesus that we dedicate our lives to following him.
And one day, we will become so good at loving, that we will become very much like Christ himself.
We will be Saints and we will be enjoying the fullness of the Communion of Heaven.
So, if you haven’t accepted Christ’s gift of salvation, start with that. If you need to repent of your sins, do that. And if you’ve never really started the quite difficult work of following Jesus, the hard work of becoming a better Lover, get started today…get started Now.
It will be worth it.
Jesus is worth it.
Heaven is worth it.
Dan Kenney 