Homily: 2nd Week of Lent - Monday - "Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful"

Both the reading from Deuteronomy and the Gospel speak of God’s mercy.  Mercy is an important Lenten theme—for, our own Lenten journey, includes reflection on what it means to be a sinner and a recipient of God’s mercy.

Saint Faustina wrote that God’s mercy is never exhausted, and that God will not deny his mercy to anyone who turns to him in repentance. 

Pope Benedict said, “Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: Encountering Christ means encountering the mercy of God.  Jesus willingly gave himself up to death so that we might be saved and pass from death to life.  Mercy has a name, mercy has a face, mercy has a heart.” 

At the beginning of Lent, we prayed for God to give us compunction—that realization that I am a sinner and  Jesus died for me.

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” the Lord instructs in today’s Gospel

The one who is deeply aware of the mercy he has received will in turn show mercy towards others.  Many of the saints engaged in feeding the hungry and clothing the naked out of a knowledge of how God had loved them even when they were unlovable due to their sin. 

Because God has been merciful with us, we engage in the corporal works of mercy: Feed the hungry, Give drink to the thirsty, Clothe the naked, Shelter the homeless, Visit the sick, Visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead.  Sometimes we forget too about the spiritual works of mercy: comforting the sorrowful, counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, praying for the living and the dead, forgiving injuries, bearing wrongs patiently, and admonishing the sinner.  These are actions born out of a knowledge that God has been so merciful with us, now we need to be merciful to others in return.

In connection with this call to be merciful, Jesus warns against judging others.  In doing so, He is not saying that we are to turn a blind eye to sin.  When politicians work to normalize abortion or perverted lifestyles, we are to meet their public evils with public condemnation.  When a family member is failing to bring their children to Sunday Mass, we are to take them aside and gently admonish this failure in hope that the behavior is corrected.  We admonish and correct not because we are angry and don’t care, rather, because we do care about their souls and their eternal salvation.

What Jesus is forbidding is that condemnation that says someone is beyond my mercy and beyond God’s mercy. 

Saint Josemaria Escriva  said that  “you must never treat anyone unmercifully.  If you think someone is not worthy of your mercy, you should realize that you don’t deserve mercy either”. 

May we deepen in our mercy towards even the most unlovable in our midst, in measuring out mercy according to the infinite mercy we have been shown by God for the glory of God and salvation of souls.