God Delights in You

I just visited Naga where the Jesuits have a university. I joined the community of Jesuits there in their afternoon prayer. One phrase in their prayer booklet that struck me was this line: "God delights in you." I keep thinking about this even now. God delights in me? How and why?
How can God possibly delight in a person who keeps on doing what offends Him? How can He delight in me when I repeatedly commit the same mistakes, the same sins over and over again? How can Jesus positively be glad of me when everything I do seemed a failure, no good, not enough?

On my second day of stay in the Jesuit community, the Ateneo de Naga President, the genial and perpetually-smiling Fr. Joel Tabora, toured me inside the university church. He explained to me why this church is called Bicol baroque. In one of the stained glass windows, he pointed the image of a son crying, hugged tenderly and lovingly by his father. That, he said, is sin from the point of view of the Father.

God loves sinners. He must have loved me too. God delights in me. Not even though I am a sinner, not despite of, but because I am a sinner.