John 3:17...no that's not a typo

So I was in adoration the other day reading through the morning prayer and mass readings for the day in my Magnificat when a verse caught my eye.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son..." Ok not that one, everyone knows John 3:16, it's basically the definition of Christianity.  It was the next verse that I want to talk about: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."  John 3:16 is everywhere; but I've never paid attention to John 3:17 before.  I think it really hits home with Christianity though, and especially with Catholicism because so many people think that all we care about is how many sins you've committed and that we focus on the guilt. Our God is supposedly this judging God.  But right there after the definition of Christianity God clarifies for us, because of course He knew He would need to: not to condemn the world, not to count our sins and make us feel guilty, but that we might be saved.  

Which leads me to a song that has been bothering me: Jason Gray's "More Like Falling In Love."  In it he says "more like falling in love than something to believe in, more like losing my heart than giving my allegiance."  Falling in love with our heavenly Father and His Son is definitely necessary and often missing from the Catholic Church (in my opinion).  But it's not just a feeling either.  It's a way of life.  Gray says "give me rules, I will break them; give me lines, I will cross them."  Yes, we break the rules the church sets down for us; but not on purpose.  We break them because we're flawed, we're human, WE SIN.  It's so necessary to realize that, to see what we're doing wrong, so that we can change.  God didn't send his Son to to save us so that we could do whatever we wanted and make our own rules.  He sent Him so that we would WANT to follow the rules, so that when we fail, we come running back into His arms because He's forgiven us, and we try again.  

Gray says that "all religion ever made of me was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet, it never set me free."  So many people have those same feelings, and it frustrates me that as a Christian he would so those things on the radio (and that Christian radio stations would play it).  But it also makes me sad that he's so misguided that he can't see how glorious the church is.  

It seems to me that Christianity is divided in two.  On one side are the Catholics, Lutherans, and other denominations who seem to be very focused on the Church as a building with rules.  On the other hand are the denominations who want to know if I have a personal relationship with Jesus.  Together these two sides make a whole.  The Catholic Church is definitely taking steps toward the middle; but as a whole, and especially from the outside, it is still focused on structure.  Which is completely necessary; but what good is structure with no feeling, no personal meaning?  Not much, I think.  

"For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him"--John 3:17