We humans tend to think of generosity as a zero-sum game.

"I owe you one!" we spontaneously say to someone who does us a favor. And what parent hasn’t wondered aloud, "You'd think she could show just a little gratitude, after all I’ve done for her."

Like it or not, we are constantly in a credit-debit relationship with others. Small wonder, then, that we think of God as just another human with calculated generosity—and a much deeper memory of our sins. "Surely, he can’t forgive this," we say, because we think God is just like us.

Pope Benedict XVI speaks eloquently of God's love in Deus Caritas Est. Life in God, he writes, is like being immersed in a boundless ocean of love. No amount of sin, and no anxious clinging to lists of grievances, can overcome God's generous love.

For reflection today, imagine sin as a stone swallowed up by an ocean. What stones do I wish to cast into the ocean, once and for all?

In that same spirit: Who do I need to set free from the credits-debits list I've put them on?

Prayer: God, You show me how to love—without condition, without clinging to past injuries. Grant me the grace today to love freely as You do today. Amen.