BELIEVING IN JESUS OR BELIEVING WITH JESUS

Question: Why is it so hard to repent and believe that we are Loved by God and are called to embody this Love in the time and space we live in?
Answer 1:  We treasure other beliefs more than those offered in the Gospel.

Answer 2:   Because the Gospel invites a real relationship with Jesus over the course of our lives, and, if we're honest, it's better to keep Him at a distance!

What kind of beliefs might we treasure more?  Me welfare comes first. My family come first. No one can be trusted. They hurt me so I have to get revenge. (A dish, apparently best served cold) I can't feel good about myself unless someone else feels bad. Money, Power, Possessions and Prestige come before anything.

Repentance means searching out and becoming aware of the beliefs we hold which contradict the Gospel.  Beliefs which may be embedded in family or national culture, or ones we have universalised out of one negative experience.

We cannot believe that God is our loving Father and not believe that we are all sisters and brothers.  And so, the more we identify ourselves as beloved daughters and sons of God, who are sent into the world, to allow love to change the world, our faith will change.  Our faith "in" Jesus will gradually change to faith "with" Jesus. The same Jesus who found the heavens torn open, never to be closed again.  The same Jesus on whom the Spirit of Love descends.   Not on hIm but into Him.  The same Jesus who is driven, not to a palace for a banquet in His honour, but into the wilderness were his struggle for faithfulness is purified.

Repenting and Believing is not something we do for the forty days of Lent.  It is an adventure which permeates the whole of life.  We never finish letting go of false beliefs or of embracing a deeper understanding of Love.