In Luke 6:36 we hear: “Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.’” How merciful is that? How merciful is God, the Father?
There are at least two ways of looking at God’s mercy. The first is captured in the reading from the ninth chapter of Daniel that we read earlier this Lent. There Daniel in sackcloth and ashes prays, “Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments. …We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. …O Lord, we are shamefaced … for having sinned against you…”
We have sinned. That is key. It is not just that I as an individual have sinned, but we as a community, as a nation have sinned. If this was true in the day of kings, how much more true is this for us in a democracy where we all share in what our nation is doing or not doing in our country and in the world? Whether it be discriminatory policies and actions, ignoring international refugee conventions that our country has signed, unwillingness to pay a living wage to the poor, or the committal of hundreds of thousands of abortions each year, we have sinned. Ask African-American parents as to why they are afraid to let their children play with toy guns or why they are afraid to be stopped by police at night, or why Hispanics are afraid to encounter the police, and you will know that we have sinned. Whether it be trust in our military might rather than working for the common good of all nations, whether it be our support of the Saudi government diplomatically or through its purchase of American arms, which has caused the slaughter of thousands of civilians and the slow starvation of over a million people in Yemen, we have sinned.
I recall the criticism of President Bill Clinton and leaders of other Western democracies over their refusal to act to stem the genocide in Rwanda. They did not heed the pleading of Canadian General Romeo Dellaire, who commanded the United Nations troops in Rwanda, to let him try and stop the slaughter. They would not let his men leave their base. We have sinned.
“O Lord, we have sinned against you.” Yet God is merciful and forgiving when we turn to Him. This is true. It is something I remember every time I enter the confessional. As a 14th Century penitential advised: before a priest hears the confession of another, he should first recall his own sins and the mercy of God to him, as only then can he offer that mercy to another of God’s people.
The second way of looking at God’s mercy is to recognize that we, humanity, have put Jesus, God’s only Son, to death, crucified, dying on the cross – a cross made not just of wood, but of our sins. As we read in Isaiah 53: “He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins. Upon Him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by His stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon Him the guilt of us all. …Through His suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt He will bear. …Because He surrendered Himself to death, and was counted among the wicked, and He shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses.” Despite the awfulness of our sin, God the Father is willing to forgive us if we turn to him and ask His pardon. He is mercy itself.
This is the challenge: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Jesuit Father John Michalowski is the parochial vicar at St. Peter Church in Charlotte.