When, in the Book of Exodus, the people of Israel create and worship a molten calf, God is justifiably displeased, and proposes letting his wrath blaze up against them to consume them. But Moses reminds the Lord of the relationship they have established: the malfeasants, Moses says, are your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand. It is God’s mercy alone that will keep them together as a people, and so God relents in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. In the end, God’s mercy wins out over God’s wrath. David asks for no less in Psalm 51, the Miserere: Have mercy on me, o God, in your goodness. David recognizes the depth of his sin against God in the murder of Uriah; David knows how far he has fallen, and asks that the closeness of relationship between himself and the Lord might be restored: Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
Jesus similarly stresses the mercy of God in the parables he shares with the scribes and Pharisees in Luke’s Gospel. God desires that all should dwell in his love, and so God goes after the lost sheep until he finds it, whereas the scribes and Pharisees have written off sinners as unworthy of mercy. The parable of the woman who loses a coin reminds them that any one sinner that is lost diminishes the community, and their repentance is thus cause for rejoicing. The scribes and Pharisees believe they understand God’s love, but they are not ready to extend that love to all, unlike God, whose love, as seen in the parable of the prodigal son, knows no boundaries. The father in the parable is filled with love and compassion for the son who returns home after having sinned against heaven; his love is equally strong for the older son who becomes angry at his father’s mercy toward his brother. In every case, conversion is necessary; we must know that all are God’s children; to focus on the “otherness” of our brother is to make it impossible for us to know and fully appreciate the profound depth of God’s love for every single person, sinners included.
Perhaps no one was more aware of God’s mercy than Paul who, in his First Letter to Timothy, claims to have been foremost among sinners, having been a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant. But it is precisely his sin, born of ignorance, that causes God’s mercy to flow forth: for that reason, I was mercifully treated, Paul says. If God can show mercy towards Paul, then surely all have access to that mercy; mercy is, after all, what Christ came to proclaim. His love for Paul has transformed Paul, strengthening him and giving him every reason to share the good news of God’s mercy, the most perfect manifestation of his love for us that exists.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
No comments:
Post a Comment