The Mercy of God

ON FRIDAY, 13 March 2015, Pope Francis presided over a penance service in St. Peter’s Basilica during which he announced an extraordinary Jubilee Year dedicated to Divine Mercy. The event will begin on 8 December this year, and will end on 20 November 2016, the Solemnity of Christ the King who, the Pope said, is the “living face of the Father’s mercy”.

In the wake of atrocities taking place worldwide during this time of moral decline, and the increased public acceptance of what had previously been recognized as sin and even perversion, Pope Francis extols the example of the sinful woman in the house of the Pharisee. The Pope explained, “There is the love of the sinful woman, who humbles herself before the Lord; but first there is the merciful love of Jesus for her, which pushes her to approach. Her cry of repentance and joy washes the feet of the Master, and her hair dries them with gratitude; her kisses are pure expression of her affection; and the fragrant ointment poured out with abundance attests how precious he is to her eyes. This woman’s every gesture speaks of love and expresses her desire to have an unshakeable certainty in her life: that of being forgiven. And Jesus gives this assurance: welcoming her, he demonstrates God’s love for her, just for her! Love and forgiveness are simultaneous: God forgives her much, everything, because ‘she loved much’ (Luke 7:47); and she adores Jesus because she feels that in him there is mercy and not condemnation. Thanks to Jesus, God casts her many sins away behind him, he remembers them no more (cf. Is 43:25). For her, a new season now begins; she is reborn in love, to a new life.”

The Holy Father went on to explain her blessed state, “This woman has really met the Lord. In silence, she opened her heart to him; in pain, she showed repentance for her sins; with her tears, she appealed to the goodness of God for forgiveness. For her, there will be no judgment except that which comes from God, and this is the judgment of mercy. The protagonist of this meeting is certainly the love that goes beyond justice”.

 

Love or formality

 

Pope Francis contrasts the sinful woman with the ‘righteous’ Pharisee who had invited Jesus to the dinner into which the uninvited woman abruptly appears. The Pope observes, “Simon the Pharisee, on the contrary, cannot find the path of love. He stands firm upon the threshold of formality.”

This is not the attitude of the Church, nor was it the attitude of Saint Anthony, an apostle of mercy. Pope Francis calls each individual to a broader vision. “The call of Jesus pushes each of us never to stop at the surface of things, especially when we are dealing with a person. We are called to look beyond, to focus on the heart to see how much generosity everyone is capable of. No one can be excluded from the mercy of God; everyone knows the way to access it and the Church is the house that welcomes all and refuses no one. Its doors remain wide open, so that those who are touched by grace can find the certainty of forgiveness. The greater the sin, so much the greater must be the love that the Church expresses toward those who convert”.

 

Abyss of Divine Mercy

 

One of the most endearing traits of Saint Anthony was his immense love for human beings. While firm in pointing out sin, he was even more insistent on calling people to repentance and assuring them of the mercy of God. The story is told of twelve robbers who spread themselves among a throng gathered to hear Saint Anthony preach. Their curiosity at seeing and hearing this idol of the people, perhaps with the intention of mocking him later, gave way to each one recognizing his sin and being disturbed by it. In the end, each made his way to Anthony and asked to confess. Having forgiven the robbers of their sins and addressing to each a suitable and difficult penance (for their sins were great), Anthony sternly admonished them to maintain their resolve to amend their lives or they would end badly.

In Divine Mercy in My Soul, the Diary of Saint Faustina Kowalska, the saint records the following as coming from the lips of Christ, “Tell souls not to place within their own hearts obstacles to my mercy, which so greatly wants to act within them. My mercy works in all those hearts which open their doors to it. Both the sinner and the righteous person have need of my mercy. Conversion, as well as perseverance, is a grace of my mercy” (1577).

“Let the greatest sinners place their trust in my mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of my mercy. My daughter, write about my mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to my mercy delight me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to my compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in my unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. Write: before I come as a just judge, I first open wide the door of my mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of my mercy must pass through the door of my justice…” (1146).

 

Innate goodness

 

Saint Anthony embraced these truths. He wrote in his sermon notes, as if Jesus were speaking, “… because there was not a single man who might appear before God as a righteous intercessor for mercy, I made myself man, to intercede for men. And while showing myself to man, I found in man that whereby I might be merciful to man” (Sermons for Sundays and Festivals, Messaggero di Sant’Antonio Editrice, Vol. II, 331).

Unlike the heretics of his time, Anthony recognized the good in humanity, which had to be present as humanity was created by the all good God. That God, in Christ, recognized humanity’s sin-tarnished good as worthy of redemption.

Note how closely St. Anthony’s words correspond to the revelations of Saint Faustina. “O depth of divine clemency, that human intelligence cannot fathom because his mercies are countless!... His mercy is everywhere, even in hell, because he does not punish as much as the guilty deserve. The earth is full of the Lord’s mercy, and of his fullness we wretches have all received. By God’s mercy, I am what I am, without it I am nothing. O Lord, if you take away your mercy, I fall into eternal misery. Your mercy is the pillar of heaven and earth, and if you take it away they all collapse… However often we sin mortally, in mind or body, and are not immediately throttled by the devil, we should reckon it every time to be due to the infinite mercy of God. He waits for us to be converted, and so he does not let the devil throttle us. We should give thanks to the merciful Father for so many mercies …” (Sermons II, 446-47).

 

Anthony’s prayer

 

Remembering how Jesus mercifully dealt with Saint Peter, who betrayed our Lord three times during his Passion, Anthony composed a prayer which is especially suited for daily prayer during this Year of Divine Mercy: “Look upon me with the merciful eye that looked on Peter, and have mercy on me by forgiving my sins. I am alone, and you are my one and only friend. I am poor and empty, that you may fill my emptiness. See my abjection in my confession, and my labour in satisfaction, and forgive all my sins, my God.” (Sermons II, p. 60)