At the end of today’s gospel (John 3:31-36) we hear, “whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” These words that Jesus shares with Nicodemus might not seem like good news befitting the Easter season! And yet, we should be careful not to dismiss them, lest we fall into the trap of worshipping an idol that we call Jesus, rather than the true Jesus, revealed in the flesh of Jesus Christ, wounded for us.
Perhaps during this Easter season when the Holy Spirit seeks to “teach us all things” we could ask for the grace to begin to understand more deeply how God’s wrath really is an expression of God’s love for us, and thus part of the good news that we proclaim. I invite you to re-read a reflection that I offered on God’s wrath, which you can find at https://www.magisspirituality.org/ignatian_reflection/16-05-03/. In that reflection, you will see that God’s wrath expresses a love that passionately desires for things to be different, out of love for the creature trapped by sin.
Perhaps this reflection on heaven can also help us to have a better sense of why God’s wrath is actually an expression of God’s love: https://www.magisspirituality.org/ignatian_reflection/19-06-03/. God wants to keep all substitutes for the true life of love out of heaven, because heaven is the place where we will perfectly share in God’s life. And so that wrath that purifies us of all that is not true life is an expression of the love that wishes nothing else than the greatest life for us in eternity. Let us ask for the grace to receive God’s love, even where it might be expressed in wrath, so that we might truly share the fullness of life and love in eternity, even if we might first have to be purified by that love “as if by fire” (1 Cor 3:15).