Why do we have
such a hard time grasping the mercy of God?
We see examples of
God’s mercy throughout Scripture, yet it can be hard for us to get our heads –
and hearts – around what that mercy might look like in our own lives. When, in the Book of Exodus, the people of
Israel create a golden calf to which they can bow down and sacrifice,
God sends Moses back down the mountain to confront them. The author of Exodus indicates that God’s
threat is serious: God wants to allow his wrath to blaze up against the
people to consume them because of
their failure to remain faithful to covenant.
But Moses’ prayerful intervention ends with God agreeing to relent in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. Might it be that the author of Exodus is
projecting a human understanding of God’s reaction to their failure to remain
faithful onto God’s activity, denying God’s fundamental love for humanity?
Look at how the
Lord deals with King David, to whom we attribute Psalm 51. David has arranged for Bathsheba’s husband
Uriah to die so that David himself may have her. Recognizing the enormity of his sin, David
prays, A clean heart create for me, O
God… In spite of his immense failure, David trusts in God, and is open to
God’s mercy: a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn. Paul likewise knows that God has shown him
tremendous mercy; in the First Letter to Timothy, Paul writes, I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and
arrogant, but I have been mercifully treated. Open to the revelation of God’s love for him,
Paul is made an exemplar of God’s mercy.
No story so
encapsulates the abundance of God’s mercy and love as that of the prodigal son
in Luke’s Gospel. The son (like the
sheep and the coin in the other parables Jesus tells the Pharisees and scribes)
had been lost to his father; his return is cause for celebration! The older son fails to appreciate the
immensity of the mercy of which the father is capable: this son becomes
angry and refuses to enter the house because he can only define the father
and the father’s love within his own parameters. But Jesus comes to show us that God celebrates
repentance and loves every opportunity to draw us closer. We may not always see it, grasp it, recognize
it, but the mercy of God is always available to us, if only we (re)turn toward
him with an open heart, a heart contrite
and humbled, ready to proclaim God’s
praise.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
