The Priest at Prayer, May 24

The Priest and the Eternal Truths

The Mercy of Christ

Second Meditation - The All-Merciful Christ

I.
How will our Divine Lord welcome a heart returning to Him contrite for past disorders and humbled at the prospects of His Justice? With a Compassion befitting the great and merciful God that He is.

When the Son of God came down to earth - tamquam Sponsus procedens de thalamo suo - from the brightness of His Glory to the obscurity of the Virgin's womb, His Divine Immensity "dwindled to human infancy," He seems to be in a hurry to divest Himself before our eyes of the mantle of His sovereign Majesty; He speeds to earth, not with thunder and lightnings, not to open the sluices of the ocean - for Sinai and the Deluge were not so effective! - He comes to earth in search, not of the pure and noble remnants of our race, not to a hidden Noe or a persecuted Elias; He comes in search of sinners:

I came not to call the just, but sinners, to repent­ance. (Luke v, 32)

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (1 Tim. i, 15)

John the Baptist, the last prophet of the Old Cove­nant, was a second Elias filled with the idea that the Messiah was to come to avenge, One whose axe was put to the root of the tree, whose winnowing-fan was ready to purge the threshing-floor clean in order to gather the wheat and consume the chaff in unquenchable fire; but no sooner does he set eyes on Jesus than his mind seems to undergo an abrupt change. Who would have imagined that those very lips which had been preaching punishment and austere penance would suddenly break out into an expression of the utmost tenderness?

Behold the Lamb of God! Behold him who takes away the sin of the world! (John i, 29)
From the rock flowed honey.

II.
The idea launched by the Precursor was well con­firmed by Jesus, in His actions, His sayings, and His parables.

In Jesus's actions. Why not search for them by read­ing the Gospel? What repentant sinner ever went to Him and was not welcomed with a thrill of fatherly emotion?

Now it is a woman caught in the act of adultery whom His mercy shields from the shower of stones prescribed by the implacable Law, and on whom He imposes no other penalty than to allow her penitential future to be steeped in the ineffable sweetness of His parting words:

Neither will I condemn thee; go, and now sin no more. (John viii, 11)

Now it is the woman notorious for her light conduct, who in anxious fear takes refuge under the shadow of His compassion, and finds herself rehabilitated and defended from her accusers by the irresistible eloquence of the Divine Word. Now it is the publican, a public swindler, whom Jesus goes out of His way to meet and welcome an invitation from; the man who receives Jesus with the fragrant kiss of fourfold restitution for any ill­gotten gains. Now it is the good thief, who with three words from a cross next to Thine, O Jesus, steals away Thy very Heart, Thy forgiveness, and Thy Father's Kingdom closed until then even to the just! Prodigious Mercy Thine, that would be accompanied on Thy entry into the Kingdom by a criminal executed on the public gallows, as if he were Thy knight-companion!

Thou didst implore pardon even for those who sought it not, did not desire it. And lifted up on the cross of ignominy, it would seem as if Thy first and most urgent need was for Thee to pour all Thy strength into that sublime appeal:

Father, forgive them!

Even those who were crucifying Thee and heaping insults upon Thy wounds....Father, forgive them.

III.
In Jesus's doctrine. The Name He chose for Himself is redolent of Mercy, and distils the virgin honey of His Divine Compassion: ­

Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matt. i, 12)

Only the life of Jesus, all steeped in loving-kindness and pity for sinners, enables us to grasp the exact mean­ing of the text:

Go then and learn what this meaneth: "I will have mercy and not sacrifice." (Matt. ix, 13)

Those ritualistic Jews, O Jesus, did not believe in Thee; they knew more about their vain sacrifices and empty rites than about Thy ineffable Pity towards the delinquent children of Adam!

It is not those who are in health that have need of the physician, it is those who are sick; therefore, Jesus, the Physician of souls, comes to heal the worst and
most rebellious of diseases. And, in order to feel for us, He, the Sinless One, wished to suffer the consequences of sin:

abandonment by God:

Deus, Deus, meus, ut quid dereliquisti me? (Matt.xxvii, 46):

shame and confusion:
­and he began to fear and to be heavy... (Mark xiv, 33),

and remorse:
to grow sorrowful and sad. (Matt. xxvi, 37),
and every pain that a human being is capable of in body and soul. All because He became a Victim for our sins:

" Christ never knew sin, and God made Him into sin for us." (II Cor. v, 21)

And He stooped so close to the human heart in its greatest wretchedness that the Apostle could write:

"And so He needs must become altogether like His brethren; He would be a High Priest Who could feel for us and be our true representative before God." (Heb. ii, 17)

Abundant clarity is now shed, O Lord, on the lesson Thou gavest to Peter:

Thou shalt forgive thy brother, not seven times, but seventy times seven.

Thou, my Model of forgiveness, art therefore ready to forgive me four hundred and ninety times, which means, always, whenever I return to Thee contrite and humble.

IV.
Should these actions and sayings not suffice, I still have the loveliest of parables that came from the lips of the Master of the parable. St. Luke records them in his fifteenth chapter - "the sinner's chapter" - which we, who have so often sinned and in our bitterness of soul are ready to sin many times more, would do well to read and take into our blood.

Lord, those three parables in that chapter are Thy own Self-defence; Thou didst invent them to ward off the accusation which rankled most in the minds of Thy adversaries:

"This man converses with sinners and eats with them":

and they explain Thy conduct, a conduct that to them seemed outrageous. Because Thou art the "Good Shepherd," Thou runnest after the lost sheep; because Thou art a "Father," Thou knowest how it pains to lose a child whose rearing cost so much pain and toil and love; because Thou art even the "Woman in love" who cherishes the ten golden coins given her by the bridegroom on their wedding day, Thou art an eager­ness to find them when lost.

In order to show me what kind of a Heart Thou hast for sinners, it was not enough, O Lord, to compare Thyself to a simple shepherd, who possesses no treasure beyond his little flock; it was not enough to compare Thyself to a tender-hearted father; no, Thou must needs delve into the heart of a woman, of a woman in love, and compare with hers Thy anxious solicitude while rummaging for the lost treasure: my soul lost among the refuse of my sinfulness; my soul, a drachma of little intrinsic worth, but treasured for the love Thou Thyself hast deposited therein.

V.

I say to you that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that does penance. (Luke xv, 7)

The sweetness of these words could melt a heart of stone. They are, dear Lord, the refrain closing those three magnificent stanzas of chapter fifteen, wherein, O Sovereign Troubadour of Heaven, Thou hast sung the praises of Thy eternal Pity. How could I so much as dream that my poor soul's return to Thee had power to move Thee so deeply, to produce in Thee such intense delight, as to rally all Heaven together to join with Thee in festive thrill and cheer? How shall I, who have given Thee so much displeasure throughout my long sinful life, refuse Thee at last this moment of delight? My sincere conversion will be a festive occasion not only for Thee, but for all Thy angels and saints as well!

Have words ever sprung from Christ's lips so reveal­ing of His love for us? Do I not grasp their meaning? Or do I fail to understand what it is to love?

Resolution
I shall very frequendy take the whole of chapter fifteen of the Gospel according to St. Luke for the subject of meditation, especially when I am aware of having fallen into grievous sin. That chapter has been the Divine Fisherman's net that has caught many a soul in its meshes.
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!