Some years ago now, Pope St John Paul II designated the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday. But do we really have an inkling of what the mercy of God is, how deep and limitless his power to forgive? Perhaps no-one has put it as well as Paul in his letter to the Romans. As you read these verses, ponder on what your own response is to people who have wounded or offended you: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom 5,6-8)
“While we were yet sinners…” How different this is from our human experience today. In the modern world it is highly fashionable to demand apologies on the slightest whim, sometimes for events that happened hundreds of years ago. We say we will forgive someone “if they show they are truly sorry for what they have done to us,” or “if they make the first move.” We say we can “forgive but not forget,” in stark contrast to God for whom forgiving and forgetting are the same thing. We love to place conditions, frequently in the most sanctimonious or self-righteous tones. But the God whom we worship died for us unconditionally “while we were yet sinners…”
If there is one quality of God with which scripture resounds, it is his mercy. From Genesis to Revelation, it the outstanding quality of his Being. The Psalms include these moving words: “The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy; he does not treat us according to our faults, nor repay us according to our sins…for his merciful kindness is evermore…” In his encyclical letter Dives in misericordiae (Rich in mercy), Pope St John Paul II holds up to us the father of the Prodigal Son as a merciful father, looking out and longing for the return of his son, even as that son is living a life of wild and luxurious abandon and spending half of his father’s estate on wine, women and song. In the prophet Isaiah God says, “I will turn my face from their iniquities, and never call their sins to mind.” Jesus himself tells us, through Peter, not to forgive those who have offended us “seven times, but seventy times seven.” And from the cross, Jesus not only prays “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” but he tells a condemned murderer and robber dying with him, “today you will be in Paradise with me.”
How unfathomably deep and broad is the measureless, unconditional love of God! And how narrow and mean-spirited that of the world in which we live, including ourselves. We have just celebrated Easter, in which Jesus the Lord laid down his divine life for us “while we were yet sinners.” If these celebrations have meant anything to us, we have no choice but to go out and to forgive those who have offended us; unconditionally. Not only has Jesus given us an example to follow; he has won for us, on the cross, the power to forgive one another, to love one another as he has loved us. We have only to take that first step; from our unconditional forgiveness, all else follows, and we will be sustained by the grace of his Spirit. Let us take that first step today, that his Divine Mercy may become a living reality in the hearts of each one of us.
Fr Phillip.
