Does God...

[the_rev]

Does God still here my prayers, if I am in the state of mortal sin. When I'm in this state, I feel like I abandonned God and thus feel I can't pray.

Thank you for the answer.

This is a question asked by a member or visitor to my Catholic Outreach, Ave Maris Stella Publications.

Your answer, with your permission will be published in our Feb. 14, 2005 issue of Ave Maris Stella.

Thank you very much,


Eddie

[Adeodatus]

We can abandon God, but God doesn't abandon us. Our sorrow, our awareness of our unworthiness is itself God's grace acting in us. The wonderful thing is that when we are sorry, and even before we get to confession, God is already [i]beginning[/i] to forgive and heal us, drawing us to complete this forgiveness [i]sacramentally[/i] in confession.

God does not change. He loves us, and that's that. Everything we are, everything we have, is pure gift on His part. That's how we can know He loves us: because He is still holding us in existence. And the fact that we will not fall out of existence into oblivion shows that He loves us forever.

I have said this here before many times: God even loves the devil, and the devil only continues to exist because He made him and holds him in being through His love.

You are certainly not the devil, and you don't even come close. For one thing you're a human being and not an angelic being. And for another, you don't know fully the choices you are making, and still have the opportunity to repent, unlike the angels who made their choice once and for all eternity. As long as we are alive we always have the chance to repent.

There is only one sin God does not forgive, and that is 'despair'---which is to think you are too unworthy of God's love, and so you won't even ask Him for forgiveness. Of course you are unworthy, just like I am unworthy, and every other human being, including Our Lady, is unworthy of God's grace. That's the nature of God's grace----it is utterly free and undeserved.

So we will always be unworthy in a sense, but you must realise that the difference between a saint and a sinner is that a saint is a [i]forgiven[/i] sinner. God's forgiveness is utterly free, and we can do nothing to deserve it. We can only ask, and be willing to receive it. God always loves us, and always wants us to want Him, not for His sake but for ours.

Don't be afraid. You cannot make God hate you. Even your question is God's grace working in you, drawing you to His mercy and love.