5 Minute Theology: Mercy

0:00There are two ways to reject God's mercy, first by believing that we are beyond all hell and that our sins exceed God's capacity for forgiveness. As we've mentioned before, this is the sin of despair and it's a form of pride, even if it seems humble. The second way to reject God's mercy is by ignoring or denying sin. This latter mistake seems the characteristic sin of our age. For us to understand the unspeakably wonderful gift that is God's promise of mercy, it is necessary first to recognize that we need mercy. The Apostle John tells us in his first letter that if we say we don't have sin, we are liars. But many people in our culture are perfectly happy to say there is no such thing as sin, that we all just at most make mistakes, but that we should regret nothing and just embrace who we are, be our quote authentic selves. This sounds very positive, but it's a very effective means the devil uses to make us

1:02forget that we are badly disfigured by sin, and have great need of regretting quite a few things and repenting of them, and that to embrace ourselves as we are is like someone on the Titanic saying that the big hole in the side gives it a certain charm and it would be a shame to fix it. This is why preaching the gospel can be a challenge. It's hardly good news that Christ rose from the dead and conquered sin and death if you don't believe in sin and don't ever think about death. The reason why the gospel spread so quickly in past ages is because people had always been keenly aware that something is wrong with them and the world, and that, as St. Paul says, we do all kinds of things we don't really want to do and we can't seem to become who we want to be. Of course, while we are happy to excuse ourselves from sin and embrace what we consider our charming little faults, which give us what we consider our very unique personality, we are certainly aware of the sin in the world which belongs to others. A good way to recognize one's own sins is to reflect on our reaction to the faults of others. It seems silly to some that there is a God to whom we owe obedience and whom we must

2:02please by our actions, but it does not seem silly that that person over there should know that he's annoying me and should consider how what he is doing affects me. How could he not realize that I, the paragon of virtue and clearly the main character of this thing called life, am hurt by his actions? This irrational and unjust blindness we all have is the point of Christ's parable of the wicked servant whose vast debt was forgiven by the king but who did not extend the same mercy to his own debtor. There is this difference that at least in the parable the wicked servant did recognize his debt and beg for forgiveness while many today don't even go that far. Christ wishes to remind us that yes, his mercy is infinite and thank God because any sin against the infinite God is in a sense infinite, but this mercy is not unconditional. It has, we might say, two conditions, one that we be sorry and two that we imitate that mercy towards others. St. Peter's question to our Lord seems reasonable to us, even excessive. How many times should I forgive my brother as many as seven times?

3:04Have you considered how strained your mercy would be if someone sinned against you in the same way seven different times and asked for forgiveness each time? Wouldn't you begin to doubt their sincerity? And yet God doesn't doubt our sincerity even if we return to him with contrition a thousand times a day, but he does doubt our sincerity if we fail to forgive others because it shows a lack of understanding both of our place in relation to God and our neighbor and the magnitude of our offense toward God compared to the relative nothingness of another's offense against me. We cannot possibly be sincerely contrite to God for our sins if we think that another can never make up for a sin against ourselves who are infinitely less indignity than God. The one specific prayer that Christ taught us, one which we ought to pray numerous times daily and which we pray at mass immediately before receiving him in Holy Communion, includes the all-important reminder, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Consider what you're telling God to do there. You might as well be saying, treat my sins in the exact same way I treat the sins of

4:04others. This might be a consoling thing or a frightening thing depending on how we appear to ourselves when we examine our conscience. He tells us also in the gospels that we must reconcile with our brother in order to be able to offer a pure sacrifice to him. If we approach the altar with real hatred of another in our heart, we commit a sacrilege. So let's not fall for the enticing lie that the culture tries to sell us. Your great, your perfect, anyone impinging on your truth is the real sinner, sure you can go to counseling and therapy but never to confession. Please remember that the devil wants us to be enslaved. He wants us to ignore sin because if we recognize it and repent of it, his power over us is lessened and we become more free. And when we experience that freedom from our numerous sins and praise God in gratitude for his mercy and patience with us, we should remember that we can grant freedom to many people too with our own forgiveness.