24th Sunday of Ordinary Time (The LORD is Merciful)
In the Book of Exodus, after the Israelites are freed from Egypt, God begins to make Himself known and to set the terms of the relationship he would hold with the people. Moses continues to be their representative, their advocate. As God tells Moses all that He has planned for them, Moses gently asks the Lord: “Please let me see you”. God tells Him, “To see me is more than you can bear, but I will place you in the opening of a rock, to hide you. Then I will pass by you and will allow you to see me in part.”
Then, as promised, when Moses with in that private and intimate space with God atop Mount Sinai, it’s said that, “The LORD came down in a cloud and stood with him” and first proclaimed His mysterious name, ‘LORD’”. Then, as he passed, He spoke of Himself to Moses: “The LORD, the LORD…a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity…continuing his love for a thousand generations…” [1].
We hear those words echoed in today’s Responsorial Psalms, “The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion”. Merciful….mercy, a concept that means something good is given, even when our sense of justice says it’s not what is deserved…mercy, said to be the greatest of all God’s attributes.[2]
But Jesus would take it a step further and tell us to “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” [3]. Like God, we are to be channels of, agents of mercy, and today’s Gospel presents us with one of the ways that mercy is made manifest—that is, through the act of forgiveness.
Sometimes we hear of forgiveness in the context of material debt, but we most often speak of it in the context of relationships. Forgiveness infers that there is injury to the relationship. Forgiveness is the response that seeks to heal the injury. And in this, there are two parties involved: the one who forgives, and the one who is forgiven.
One side of this coin is the need for forgiveness. It’s important to recognize this need when we’ve done something wrong. We all know people who seem unable to admit they ever do anything wrong. But it’s so important to humbly evaluate our actions, to accept guilt when it’s warranted. When we’ve done something wrong, we rightly request forgiveness saying, “I’m sorry”. But those are just words. To really receive forgiveness and to be truly freed from the wrongdoing, means to have the sincere intention to not repeat my wrongdoing. Otherwise, “I’m sorry” is meaningless, and we’re taking mercy for granted, which as the parable from today’s Gospel reveals, is very spiritually dangerous. We acknowledge our wrongdoing, we say we are sorry and genuinely seek to amend our lives.
The other side of the coin is to forgive. As today’s Gospel also makes clear, we must be forgiving. But that’s not always so easy, is it, especially depending on how deeply we were hurt by the other. But even aside from that, I can think of three obstacles to forgiveness: first, when the one who has transgressed against us, is still doing things that violate our sense of goodness, continuing to do harm in some way; second, when the one who transgressed against us has never acknowledged the harm they caused; and third, when we are still bearing the negative effects of the harm they caused. These factors make forgiveness difficult and slow, yet Jesus’ command remains.
It's only with persistent prayer, asking God to help extract the poison from our souls that has been placed in there by the one who hurt us, asking God to heal the wound, to free us from the hold that person has on us. You can call it forgiveness or coming to peace with or acceptance of a troubling reality.
The late Cardinal Frances George (d. 2015) once said, “We live in a culture that permits everything yet forgives nothing”. While the cancel culture may be quick to condemn and dismiss, we as Christians are instead called to be agents of mercy.
A bishop from the early 6th century, St. Caesarius of Arles, said it this way: “He who desires the mercy of heaven should show mercy here on earth. There is earthly, human mercy and heavenly, Divine Mercy. What is human mercy? Human mercy is concerned for the suffering of the poor. What is Divine Mercy? Divine Mercy is forgiveness of sins. The human mercy we show during the pilgrimage of our life on earth will be repaid with Divine Mercy in our heavenly Homeland. God suffers cold and hunger and thirst in the poor of this world, as he himself said, ‘Whatever you do to the least of my people, you do to me[4]. God asks us to show Him mercy in this life, so that He can extend mercy to us in the next.
I invite you to (as I must) prayerfully consider where God is calling you to something greater as an agent of his mercy. Trust that there is healing and freedom that awaits you in it. Indeed, the Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion. Let us be merciful like our heavenly Father.
[1] Exodus chs. 33-34
[2] Saint John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia, 13)
[3] Lk 6:36
[4] St. Caesarius de Arles, Sermones, 2,1