…[F]or unto us this day a Savior is born [Luke 2:11] With that momentous event, the yoke of oppression that had suffocated human aspirations was lifted. The “Law,” which had been distorted to suppress human spirit and individuality in lieu of honoring God’s commandments, was restored.


©2013 – William Sutherland

God is love. [1 John 4:8 and 4:16] Consequently He intended that we have an “easy yoke and light burden” [Matthew 11:30], which is encapsulated in the “Ten Commandments” and “Two Great Commandments.”

Yet today’s religious authorities and “moralists” still attempt to impose additional conditions to compel conformity to their subjective views. They declare every digression a “sin.” Sin, which me must try our hardest to avoid (not out of fear, but because of our love for God), is solely the violation of the above commandments, which can be defined as an act of injustice against God and/or other living beings. Sin is not the fulfillment of individuality and/or the exercise of free will nor the enjoyment of life here on Earth. After all our temporal lives and the world were created by God and thus are good!

Nevertheless many of these same authorities cite scripture (“[T]he wages of sin is death.” [Romans 6:23]) to instill fear to compel adherence to their set of beliefs and/or dogma. If they were really concerned about spiritual well being, they would not condemn or alienate people from God!

In reality, had there been no Christmas, every living being would be predestined to everlasting death. However, since God’s love culminated in the Christmas birth of a Savior who extended universal salvation (which includes salvific grace to EVERY religion such that they should be respected rather than looked down upon by those who feel their faith is somehow superior and/or the only path to salvation. It doesn't matter if you are a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. – you are saved!) each of us is predestined to eternal life! Good thing God’s ways are not our ways and the resurrection is not weak or limited as some by their fear-mongering statements would have us believe!

Thus rejoice during this Christmas season and know:

[I]f one is unjustly stripped of worth and unfairly condemned or rejected, God’s love for that individual is not reduced or eliminated. Instead, it is strengthened.

It is in this context that Jesus reached out, touched and healed a leper [Matthew 8:2-3], defended the adulterous woman whom society wanted to stone [John 8:3-11], and dined with social outcasts such as the tax collector [Mark 2:15-17].

In the 21st century, Jesus would undoubtedly reach out, touch and heal one suffering from AIDS, accept and forgive the woman who had an abortion, and dine with members of the LGBT community, prostitutes, the incarcerated and the so-called “unsaved.” And in future ages, he would reach out, touch and heal one suffering from some new, stigmatizing disease, forgive one of some other en vogue “condemning” sin of the day, and dine with those disenfranchised from and marginalized by the mainstream society of that respective period.

…God’s love is not based on what society and/or others may think of you! It does not matter who you are!

In fact, God’s love is so intensely personal, He declares, “My name is not complete without yours… I am made whole by your life.”[Sufism: Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz (c. 1320-1389 CE)].

Consequently, when St. John of the Cross asked God in a mystical conversation – “Is [it] the fate of any heart to not reach [Y]ou?” – He answered, “No, no that is not the fate of any soul… I want all souls to consummate with [M]e.”

[Source: God is Love, pp. 55, 62-64]


©2013 – William Sutherland

May God bless you and your families always. Merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year!

William