In tomorrow's Mass readings, we hear the accounts of God's forgiveness of King David after he had committed the very grave sins of adultery and murder, and also of the forgiveness of the sinful woman who bathed Jesus' feet with her tears. We also hear St. Paul's words to the Galatians about justification through faith in Jesus Christ. We all stand in need of God's forgiveness and justification if we are to enter into the heavenly happiness that we desire. By way of reflection on our readings, I would like to offer a few thoughts about forgiveness and justification.

We learn from tomorrow's readings, first, about the reality and true effectiveness of God's forgiveness and justification. God really takes away our sins; God really makes us, not only no longer deserving of hell, but even deserving of heaven. We can never earn forgiveness of our sins or justification in God's sight. But God, by his grace and mercy in Christ, does grant us forgiveness and justification. We are really delivered from hell; we are given the real hope of heaven.

We learn also something about the nature of forgiveness and justification. They are brought about by Christ's work; and furthermore this is a work that is not external to us, but rather, that takes place within us, within the very depths of our being. Indeed, we are justified by Christ's own life within us, by his becoming the inner source of our life, by his uniting of us with himself. We might note Paul's words: "I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me."

And if Christ really lives in us to justify and save us, then we, as St. Paul also says, must "live for God." Or, put slightly differently, we must live lives of true love, with our whole being, of God and neighbor. If we do not live such lives of love, then we are not accepting Christ's justifying and saving life within us.

There is another point that needs to be made. Again, Christ's life of love in and through us really brings about our forgiveness. It really makes us no longer deserving of hell. And it really begins to make us worthy of heaven. But we must remember that even when our sins have been forgiven, their bad effects in the world and in ourselves are not automatically negated, but, rather, often persist. These effects can be of various kinds. They can, for instance, include harm to ourselves. This harm can hold us back from living fully the life of justification and holiness, the life of Christ, and so from being fully and truly able to enter heaven.

We see some indication of this in tomorrow's first reading, about David. God, through the prophet Nathan, tells David that he will "not die" for his sins. Of course, he will die one day, like all men and women, but not at this moment, not specifically for the grave sins that he has just acknowledged and for which he has been forgiven. This prefigures the effects in us of God's forgiveness in Christ, which saves us from eternal death in hell for our sins, even though we will undergo physical death (except perhaps if Christ returns in glory first). But God also tells David, "Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me ..." There will be trouble for David himself, even though he will not die for his sins, and for his descendants. Indeed, as God goes on to say through Nathan after the end of the passage we hear at Mass, David's infant son with Uriah's wife will die.

This indicates, I think, that even when God really forgives us our sins and delivers us from hell, this does not, as I said, automatically take away the effects of our sins, the disorder that they create, the disorder that they create in our relationships with one another, and also the disorder that they create within ourselves.

So, of course, as a necessary aspect and expression of our repentance and our acceptance of forgiveness, we must cooperate with God's love in repairing our relationship with him, and also in repairing, to the extent possible, the disorder that our sins have created around ourselves in this world, the harms that they have brought about in the lives of others and in our relationships with others. And the love that is brought about in us as we accept God's forgiveness and justification in Christ must also lead to and include cooperation as he heals and frees and purifies us of the interior effects of our sins, which, again, would otherwise tend to keep us from full union with him, from full holiness in this world, from readiness for heaven.

If we do not undertake this latter cooperation in this life, if we die not yet fully purified of the effects in ourselves of our sins, not yet fully and perfectly living the life of Christ's love, then we will enter heaven, but not right away - not until after we have undergone the remainder of the purification that we needed because of our sins; not until we have experienced Purgatory.

Let us, then, first of all, approach God in humility and in hope for forgiveness of our sins. Let us accept and thank him for this forgiveness in Christ by our love for him and for one another. Let us especially perform those actions of penance and love that will repair the damage that our sin has done to our relationship with him, and to others and our relationships with them. Let us also perform as part of our penance those actions to which the Church has attached indulgences, in order to be interiorly purified and healed of the effects of our sins, and united fully with Christ our justification, and made ready for perfect communion and happiness with the Blessed Trinity and with one another in heaven.