Divine Mercy Sunday
Deacon Robert Banet
So again, how old are you?
I’ll be nine next month.
And your question?
Why did God the Father want his Son to die?
Well Amelia, the short answer is to save us from Hell.
How could that be? Jesus did not do anything wrong.
True. But let’s look at this way. Man has been sinning since the time of Adam, right?
Yes.
And sin needs to be punished. Have you ever been punished?
Yes, my daddy spanks me when I’m bad.
So when we sin against God, the punishment is very bad. The punishment is Hell.
That’s terrible.
Right. So God loved us so much that He wanted to remove that punishment. Do you understand?
Yes, I guess so.
He could not just wipe away our sins; His tremendous majesty demanded that we die. So He asked His Son to die for us.
But wasn’t His Son God? How could God die?
Yes, you’re right; Jesus was God but He was also man. And as man, He could die.
Oh, I’m beginning to see.
And in some mysterious way when He agreed to do His Father’s will, our punishment (hell) was taken away. Heaven was opened for was.
How did that happen?
All I can say is that Jesus, the Lamb of God, gave His life and the Father accepted it in our place.
We studied in school about the Lamb of God. John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God.
Right. So the terrible sufferings and death of Jesus took away our punishment and opened the gates of Heaven for us, as the Father wanted. So love is the reason for that terrible suffering
How can we ever thank Him?
Ah, good question. We thank Him by praise and thanksgiving and by leading a good life.