"God loves you as you are ..."

The problem with the observation is not that it is untrue, but that it is always only one part of the story. If God loves me as I am, he would also love me to be a bit better than I am. 

I remember some years ago now hearing a story that Monsignor Paul Watson used to tell. The captain of a large oil tanker sailing at night towards a light in the distance desperately tried to contact that smaller ship to tell it to change course, as his ship was too large to do so. When the smaller ship pointed out that it was in fact a light house, the captain of the oil tanker did not need to then be told what to do. He recognised straight away that it was in fact his ship that needed to change course. Monsignor Watson used the story as a parable of a "first conversion" that might occur as a person encounters the Gospel. It indicated a certain style that is needed in primary proclamation and the first steps in catechesis.

Likewise, if someone pitches up in the confessional for the Sacrament of Penance they have already recognised that they want to change something in their lives. It might be appropriate to be reassuring to that person of God's love for them, and perhaps to indicate the part that God's grace plays in the journey to holiness so that they are not discouraged by their own repeated efforts. But to try to do this by saying "God loves you as you are ..." is to rather miss the point, already recognised by the person in their very presence in coming to confession, that they wish to make at least some effort in favour of a conversion of life.

A cause for reflection, I think, as we start the season of the Church's liturgical year when many will approach the Sacrament of Penance....