The compassion of Christ

His father saw him and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him.

What sinner can be so hardened as not to go instantly and cast himself at the feet of his Saviour, when he knows the tender compassion with which Jesus Christ is prepared to embrace him, and carry him on His shoulders, as soon as he repents of his sins?

The Lord has also declared His tenderness towards penitent sinners in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In that Parable the Son of God says that a certain young man, unwilling to be any longer under the control of his father, and desiring to live according to his caprice and corrupt inclinations, asked the portion of his father's substance which fell to him. The father gave it with sorrow, weeping over the ruin of his son. The son departed from his father's house. Having in a short time squandered his substance, he was reduced to such a degree of misery that, to procure the necessaries of life he was obliged to become a swine-herd. All this is a figure of the sinner, who, after departing from God, and losing Divine grace and all the merits he has acquired, leads a life of misery under the slavery of the devil. In the Gospel it is added that the young man, seeing his wretched condition, resolved to return to his father; and the father, who is a figure of Jesus Christ, seeing his son return to him, was instantly moved to pity. His father saw him, and was moved with compassion (Luke xv. 20); and, instead of driving him away, as the ungrateful son had deserved, running to him, he fell upon his neck and kissed him. He ran with open arms to meet him, and, through tenderness, fell upon his neck, and consoled him by his embraces. He then said to his servants: Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him. According to St. Jerome and St. Augustine, the first robe signifies Divine grace, which, in addition to new celestial gifts, God, by granting pardon, gives to the penitent sinner. And put a ring on his hand. By recovering the grace of God, the soul becomes again the spouse of Jesus Christ. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry. Bring hither the fatted calf — which signifies the Holy Communion, or Jesus in the holy sacrament mystically killed and offered in sacrifice on the altar; let us eat and rejoice. But why, O Divine Father, so much joy at the return of so ungrateful a child? Because, answered the Father, this my son was dead, and he is come to life again, was lost and is found (Luke xv.).

This compassion of Jesus Christ was experienced by the sinful woman who cast herself at the feet of Jesus, and washed them with her tears. The Lord, turning to her with sweetness, consoled her by saying: Thy sins are forgiven... thy faith hath made thee safe; go in peace (Luke vii. 48, 50). Child, thy sins are pardoned; thy confidence in Me has saved thee; go in peace! The tender compassion of Jesus Christ was experienced also by the man who was ailing for thirty-eight years, and who was infirm both in body and soul. The Lord cured his malady, and pardoned his sins. Behold, says Jesus to him, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee. The tenderness of the Redeemer was also felt by the leper who said to Jesus Christ: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Jesus answered: I will: be thou made clean. As if He said: Yes, I will that thou be made clean; for I have come down from Heaven for the purpose of consoling all. Be healed, then, according to thy desire. And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed (Matt. viii. 2-3).

We have also a proof of the tender compassion of the Son of God for sinners in His conduct towards the woman taken in adultery. The scribes and pharisees brought her before Jesus and said: This woman was even now taken in adultery. Now Moses, in the law, commands us to stone such a one. But what sayest thou? And this they did, as St. John says, tempting Him. They intended to accuse Him of transgressing the law of Moses, if He said that she ought to be liberated; and they expected to destroy His character for meekness, if He said that she should be stoned, says St. Augustine. But what was the answer of our Lord? He neither said that she should be stoned nor dismissed: but, bowing himself down, he wrote with his finger on the ground. The interpreters say that, probably, what He wrote on the ground was a text of Scripture admonishing the accusers of their own sins, which were, perhaps, greater than that of the woman charged with adultery. He then lifted himself up, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. The scribes and pharisees went away one by one, and the woman stood there alone. Jesus Christ, turning to her, said: Hath no man condemned thee? Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more (Jo. viii. 3-11). Since no one has condemned you, fear not that you shall be condemned by Me, Who have come on earth, not to condemn, but to pardon and save sinners. Go in peace, and sin no more.

Jesus Christ has come, not to condemn, but to deliver sinners from hell, as soon as they resolve to amend their lives. And when He sees them obstinately bent on their own perdition, He addresses them with tears, in the words of Ezechiel: Why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezech. xviii. 31). My children, why will you die? Why do you voluntarily rush into hell, when I have come from Heaven to deliver you from it by death? You are already dead to the grace of God. But I will not your death: return to Me, and I will restore to you the life you have lost. For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: return ye and live (Ezech. xviii. 32). But some sinners, who are immersed in the abyss of sin, may say: Perhaps, if we return to Jesus Christ, He will drive us away. No; for the Redeemer has said: And him that cometh to me I will not cast out (Jo. vi. 37). No one that comes to me with sorrow for his past sins, however manifold and enormous they may have been, shall be rejected.

Behold how, in another place, the Redeemer encourages us to throw ourselves at His feet with the certain hope of consolation and pardon. Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt. xi. 28). Come to Me, all ye poor sinners, who labour for your own damnation, and groan under the weight of your crimes; come, and I will deliver you from all your troubles. Again God speaks: Come and accuse me, saith the Lord; if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool (Is. i. 18). Come with sorrow for the offences you committed against Me, and if I do not give you pardon, accuse Me. As if He said: Upbraid Me; rebuke Me as untruthful; for I promise that, though your sins were of scarlet — that is, of the most horrid enormity — your soul, by My Blood, in which I shall wash it, will become white and beautiful as snow.

Let us, then, O sinners, return at once to Jesus Christ. Let us immediately return, before death overtakes us in sin and sends us to hell, where the mercies and graces of the Lord shall, if we do not amend, be so many swords to lacerate the heart for all eternity.