This is from an article by Patricia Sanchezin the National Catholic Reporter and I thought it good to quote it here as last Sunday's Gospel raised the question of justice and God's freedom to be generous.

"For it is by grace and not merit that sinners are saved. We, for our part, are to let God be God and to marvel at the ways and thoughts of God that we have yet to understand. Rather than resent the redemption of the wicked, we are to rejoice over their return to God. Then, for all our lives and with all our strength and effort, we are to work at closing the gap between God’s thoughts and our own, between God’s ways and our own by surrendering ourselves, our anger, our resentments and our desire for vengeance to the transformative power of grace."
[Patricia Sánchez holds a master’s degree in literature and religion of the Bible from a joint degree program at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York.]

The point for all of us to remember is that Jesus wants to love us and is always at the door asking to be admitted to our hearts. He will never take away our freedom but the Holy Spirit seems to work overtime to make sure we heed this desire of Jesus. He wants to love each of us and help us to love one another. Never doubt this and that helps me to see that when we respond to God's love, it is His gift, not anything I merit.