Our debt to God

You’ll remember in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant that a certain king discovered that one of his provincial governors owed him an enormous sum of money, something too vast for him ever to repay.  And our debt to God is like that, or rather it is much greater.

God’s gift of life

The first great debt we owe to God is that of our life.  If it were not for him you and I would not exist at all.  Just imagine this Catechism class in 50 years time.  There will be other girls and boys sitting where you are now, girls and boys who do not now exist.  If it were not for God’s giving us our life, we should be for ever as they are – non-existent.

Eternal life

But not only has God given us our life, he has also offered us the gift of eternal life in the next world.  And that is something even greater and more valuable.  We can see that it is even greater, because of what use would this life be if it was leading only to the endless misery of being separated from God for ever.  It would have been better in that case never to have been born at all.  And we can see how valuable this gift of eternal life is by what it has cost God to make it possible for us, namely the Crucifixion.  It cost God nothing to make your soul, but it cost him all the agonies of Good Friday to make your soul safe.

Giving God our worship

So you see that you and I confer no favours on God.  All the favours are on his side.  What we owe to him is far greater than we can ever repay.  So when we come to God in our prayers or in the services of the Church, we come to give, to give him our worship.  To worship means to honour God and show him our love by praising him and in particular by offering ourselves and our lives to him.