Whether we believe it or not, and sometimes we do find it rather incredulous, the truth is, as Peter says at the beginning of today’s second reading, that God shows no partiality. It is impossible for God to do so. God loves everyone: no exceptions. God does not always love what we do, but God always loves us nevertheless and none-the-less. God never diminishes his love for us even when our acts and our thoughts diminish our love for God. That is a comforting thought even if it is difficult to either understand or believe.

The main reason why it is so difficult for us to understand and believe in God's total, impartial, unconditional and unending love for us is, I suspect, that we human beings are not God. We do show partiality. We love some people more than we love others. We even cease loving others and at times turn towards hate.

What is more, often our love for others is often based on their love for us. Our love unlike God’s love is conditional. If they hurt us in some way, our first impulse is to want to love them less. We often do so. We know in our hearts and heads that we are to love nevertheless and nonetheless. Yet we often convince ourselves that we have a right to love less because of what the other said or did.

What is even worse is that we often transfer the way we think and act and love to the way we think God thinks and acts and loves or, rather, the way we think God should think and act and love. We are the ones who make decisions about who God loves, that God should love some people more than God loves others, that God loves believers more than unbelievers, that God obviously loves the less-sinful more than the more-sinful.

"If you do that, God won't love you," we tell our children. But that is not true. God always loves no matter what we do. He doesn't love what we do, but he still loves us. We're the ones who might not love the other if the other does what we don't want done. It is a very good thing for us, is it not, that our God does not love the way we love, that God does not think the way we think? Otherwise we'd all be in a heap of trouble.

All this is sometimes a difficult reality for us to grasp. If there is any consolation in this it is that at this point in Peter’s ministry he had still not grasped Jesus’ message, at least not fully, nor did he fully understand the responsibility that was being entrusted to him. He did understand that he and his brothers and sisters who had been privileged to be chosen as witnesses to Jesus’ mission and ministry had a tremendous obligation to tell others about all that they had seen and learned while they were with Jesus.

Up to this moment in time, however, I do not think he understood either the magnitude of that obligation or the privilege he had been given. But, then, who could? In fact, who does? Let’s be honest, each and every one of us who call ourselves Christians and claims to follow Jesus have been given that same privilege and have that same responsibility "to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead", as Peter says in today’s second reading.

Do we truly understand what a privilege this is? Do we fully grasp the responsibility that is ours as a Christian? I honestly doubt it. Yes, deep inside our hearts we know our faith is a gift from God and that not everyone is given that gift. And, yes, intellectually we understand that it is truly a privilege to be asked to share that faith with those who have not been given that gift. However, the magnitude of that privilege and responsibility eludes us. It honestly does.

One of the programs I sometimes watch on television is on the Bravo Network. It is an interview show featuring prominent actors. Near the end of the interview the host always asks the same questions, one of which is something to the effect: "If heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you when you arrive?" The answers are always fascinating. If I were to be asked that question, my response would be, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

Or at least it would be something similar. I would want God to welcome me and be pleased with what I have done with my life in this life. I hope that will be the case when I get to heaven. However, not having arrived there yet, thanks be to God, as I hope I have many more years to live and give, I will have to say that I am not always pleased with how I have lived out my life. There are some things that I would rather forget and would hope God would forget as well.

What I do know is that when I, when we, please God, the favor is returned. When we please God, we are pleased as well. When we do what God would have us do, namely live a life of love one for another, we please God. In the process we reap the immediate results of living such a life. We are blessed in the here and now and not just in eternal life. That in and of itself is motivation enough to live a life that is both pleasing to God and pleasing to ourselves.

We do not always do that, of course. Why we don’t is beyond me. Why I don’t is beyond me. I often wonder in hindsight how I could have been so stupid to have been so selfish. The fact that God forgives me for my foolishness helps and helps tremendously. It makes it easier for me to live with myself. But it does not undo the damage my sinfulness has caused. Maybe I am simply a slow learner, much to my chagrin.

If I really want to hear those words from God, words of praise, then I must begin being more attentive to my daily actions right now. I must remind myself that I am in charge of how God will respond. Yes, I know God loves me anyway. But I would prefer that God love me because of my success in loving others rather than in spite of my failures.

It is not a stretch to claim that had every baptized person understood that privilege and fulfilled that responsibility that Peter talks about, the world would have been converted a long, long time ago. This world would be a better place even as sin would still be alive and well. There would simply be less of it and it would not be as evil and destructive as it has become.

I truly believe that. I believe that we take our faith too lightly and, all too often, for granted. We promise that we will proclaim by our words and examples the Good News, that we will respect the dignity of every human being, that we will see and seek and serve Jesus in everyone we meet, but we do not, not always and not everywhere. We do not love others as God loves us. We often set conditions about who we will love and how much we will love. God does not.

As with Peter at this moment in his ministry and as faithful as we are in trying to fulfill ours, the truth is, I believe, that we still do not grasp the tremendous privilege and responsibility that has been given to us. The question is: will we ever?