It is never too late to come back to God

Not all, but many congregations are dwindling exponentially from within. These are folks who
were active in their faith but for some reason stopped coming to church.
One such prodigal shared questions with me like: Does God want me back?; I was a believer but fell
away; I was angry at God, deliberately sinning for years; I don’t have faith anymore; Like, something
prevents me from believing; I feel reprobate like Esau; I want to come back to God but feel like I
have blown it and that He rejects me; I feel I’ve committed the unpardonable sin; I no longer feel
His presence and I am dead spiritually; I don’t know if I can regain salvation, and I don’t think I can
be forgiven.
So often, people are afraid to come back to church or to the Sacrament of Reconciliation for they
feel that, since they have been gone for so long, there is no way back. Does God even want me
back? How can I tell? Well, when we have sinned and walked away from God, whether for a day or
years, coming back seems difficult. The warmth and intimacy of our faith that we experienced when
we first came to Christ seems not to be there. The prophets relentlessly called on Israel to return to
God, even though they had turned away for a long time. Jesus told of a man having 100 sheep and
one was lost who then is found and that there is more rejoicing in heaven over the one than over
the 99 who never wandered. We are His sheep. If one of us wanders from the truth and someone
turns him back, that person saves a soul from death and covers a multitude of sins.