On the Mercy of God Towards Sinners(2020-06-09)

 

"There shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than ninety -nine just, who need not penance." (Lk 15:7)

Let us speak today on the mercy which God shows to sinners, first, in calling them to repentance; secondly, in receiving them when they return.

1. Mercy of God in calling sinners to repentance

After having sinned by eating the forbidden apple, Adam fled from the face of the Lord through shame of the sin he had committed. What must have been the astonishment of the angels when they saw God seeking after him, and calling him as it were with tears, saying: " Adam, where are you?" (Gen. 3:9) These words are the words of a father in search of his lost child. 

 

Notwithstanding the refusal of sinners to return to God, God does not cease to continue to call them by so many interior inspirations, remorse of conscience, and terrors of chastisements. 

By your ingratitude you deserved that he should call you no more; but he has continued to invite you to return to him. The Patience of God!... God waits for sinners that they may one day repent, and that after their repentance, he may pardon and save them. "As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live." (Ezech. 33:11.) According to St. Augustine, by waiting for those who abuse his patience to multiply their sins, God appears to do an injustice to the divine honour. "We, continues the saint, sin; we adhere to sin; we rejoice at sin; and You are appeased! We provoke You to anger and You invite us to mercy." We and God appear to be, as it were, engaged in a contest, in which we labour to provoke him to chastise our guilt, and he invites us to pardon.

“Ah, sinners! says St. Teresa, remember that He who now calls and seeks after you, is that God who shall one day be your judge. If you are lost, the great mercies which He now shows you, shall be the greatest torments which, you shall suffer in hell.”

2. Mercy of God in receiving penitent sinners

Should a subject who has rebelled against an earthly monarch go into the presence of his sovereign to ask pardon, the prince instantly banishes the rebel from his sight, and does not condescend even to look at him. But God does not treat us in this manner, when we go with humility before Him: "The Lord your God is merciful, and will not turn away His face from you if you return to Him." (2 Par. 30:9) "Return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee." (Jer. 3:1) 

         

Oh! with what tenderness does God embrace a sinner that returns to him! This tenderness Jesus Christ wished to declare to us when he said that he is the good pastor, who, as soon as he finds the lost sheep, embraces it, and places it on his own shoulders (Luke 15: 5). This tenderness also appears in the parable of the prodigal son, in which Jesus Christ tells us that he is the good father, who, when his lost son returns, goes to meet him, embraces and kisses him, and, as it were, swoons away through joy in receiving him (Luke 15:20).

God protests that “if the wicked do penance for all the sins which he has committed […], I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done" (Ezech. 18:21,22). And in the Book of Isaias, the Lord goes so far as to say: "Come and accuse me. If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow" (Is. 50:18). Mark the words: “Come and accuse me”. As if the Lord said: repentant sinners, if I do not pardon and embrace you, reprove me, upbraid me with violating my promise.

                                                 Conclusion

                                                                 

"A contrite and humble heart, O God, You will not despise" (Ps. 50: 19), declared King David penitent. Indeed, Holy Mother Church says, that God displays his omnipotence in granting pardon and mercy to sinners. 

Do not imagine, dearly beloved sinners, that God requires of you to labour for a long time before He grants you pardon: as soon as you weep for forgiveness, He is ready to give it. Behold what the Scripture says: "At the voice of your cry, as soon as He shall hear, He will answer you" (Is. 30:19).

Let us repeat the beautiful words of today’s collect prayer: “O God, protector of all who hope in You, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, increase Your mercy toward us, that, with Your guidance and direction we may so pass through the things of this temporal life as not to lose those of life eternal.”

Fr. B. Wailliez