Presence of God

Teach me, O Lord, the secrets of Your mercy, that I may fully profit by them.

Meditation

I. God’s love for us assumes a very special character, one that is adapted to our nature as frail, weak creatures : the character of mercy. Mercy is love bending over misery to relieve it, to redeem it, to raise it up to itself. It almost seems that God, in loving us, is attracted by our weakness, not because it is lovable, but because being infinite goodness, His compassion stoops to compensate for it by His mercy. He wants to heal our imperfection by His infinite perfection, our impurity by His purity, our ignorance by His wisdom, our selfishness by His goodness, our weakness by His strength. God, the supreme, eternal good, wants to be the remedy for all our ills, "for He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust" (Ps. 102, 14).

Since our greatest evil—rather, the only real evil-—is sin, infinite mercy would be the remedy. Assuredly, God hates sin, but, although He is forced to withdraw His friendship, that is, His grace, from the soul of the sinner because of the offense, His mercy still finds a way of continuing to love him. If He can no longer love him as a friend, He loves him as a creature, as the work of His hands; He loves him for the good that is still in him and which gives hope of his conversion. God’s mercy is so immense that no misery, however great, can exhaust it; not even the most infamous sin, provided it is repented of, can halt it. This sad power is reserved to one thing only : the proud will of man by which he disdainfully shuts himself up in his wickedness, not wishing to admit how great is his need of God’s infinite mercy. In such a case, in spite of the immensity of divine mercy, the solemn words of the Gospel are fulfilled : "God hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart, He hath put down the mighty from their seats. . .the rich He hath sent empty away" (cf. Lc. 51, 53)

II. There is no limit to God’s mercy. He never rejects us because of our sins, He never grows weary of our infidelities, He never refuses to forgive us, He is always ready to forget all our offenses and to repay our ingratitude with graces. He never reproaches us for our offenses, even when we fall again immediately after being forgiven. He is never angered by our repeated failures or weakness in the practice of virtue, but always stretches out His hand to us, wanting to help us. Even when men condemn us, God shows mercy to us; He absolves us and sends us away justified, as Jesus did the woman taken in adultery. "Go, and now sin no more" (Jo. 8, 11). By His words and example, Jesus has shown us the inexhaustible depths of God’s mercy : let us think of the prodigal son, the lost sheep, Magdalen, and the good thief. But He has also said to us : "Be ye therefore merciful, as Your Father also is merciful" (Lc. 6, 36). How far does our mercy go? How much compassion do we have for the faults of others? The measure of our mercy toward our neighbor will be the measure of God’s mercy toward us, for Jesus has said, "With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again" (Mt. 7, 2).

God does not require us to be sinless that He may shower upon us the fullness of His mercy, but He does require us to be merciful to our neighbor, and moreover, to be humble. In fact, to be sinners is not enough to attract divine mercy; we must also humbly acknowledge our sins and turn to God with complete confidence. "What pleases God," said St. Therese of Lisieux, "is to see me love my littleness and poverty; it is the blind hope I have in His mercy. This is my sole treasure" (L, 176). This is the treasure which supplies for all our miseries, weaknesses, relapses and infidelities, because by means of this humility and confidence we shall obtain the divine mercy. And with this at our disposal, how can our wretchedness discourage us?

Colloquy

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all He has done for you. No, I shall never forget that You have forgiven all my faults, healed all my diseases, crowned me with mercy and compassion and satisfied my desire with good things.

"O Lord, You are compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. You will not always be angry, nor will You threaten forever. You have not dealt with me according to my sins nor rewarded me according to my iniquities. For according to the height of the heavens above the earth, Your mercy surpasses my merits. As a father has compassion on his children so have You compassion on them that fear You. For You know our frame, You remember that we are dust. Everything will pass; but Your mercy, O Lord, is from eternity unto eternity to them that fear You" (cf. Ps 102).

"O Lord, since it has been given me to realize the love of Your heart, all fear has been driven from my heart. The remembrance of my faults humiliates me, leads me never to rely on my strength, which is only weakness; but this remembrance, O Lord, speaks to me still more of Your mercy and Your love. How could my sins fail to be consumed completely if I cast them with wholly filial confidence into the burning furnace of Your love?

"O Lord, even if I had committed every possible crime, my confidence would remain unshaken, for I should then feel—after sincerely repenting of them—that all the multitude of my offenses would vanish as a drop of water in a fiery furnace.

"O Jesus, would that I could tell all little souls of Your ineffable condescension! I feel that if, by any impossibility, You could find a soul weaker than mine, I believe You would take delight in showering upon it still greater favors, if it abandoned itself with perfect trust to Your infinite mercy" (cf. T.G.J. L, 220 - NV - St, 13).