Divine Mercy

I’ve had many thoughts in the past about forgiveness, and read many others’ reflections. Some said you cannot forgive another man unless he first seeks forgiveness from you. That view seems to be borne out in Matthew 18. But I dispute that argument, recently made in an article in Touchstone magazine (by someone much more scholarly than I, I’m afraid), because Matthew 18 never specifically says the words “you cannot forgive.” I feel some yearning in my heart to say that you CAN forgive, even if the sinner does not seek forgiveness. Tonight, I read some further support for my feelings, and made more sense, for me, of God’s Divine Mercy.

Because you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another; forgive whatever grievance you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. Over all these virtues, put on love. … Christ’s peace must reign in your heart. (Col 3)

I asked myself: As the Lord has forgiven you – just how is that? It does not say anything here about him waiting for me to first ask for forgiveness. It says As the Lord has forgiven, so you are to forgive whatever grievance you have against one another. So then, I don’t need confession, my sins are forgiven? And no one needs ask forgiveness of me, but I am to forgive them anyway?? Is that what this means? I’m confused. Something isn’t right in my thinking.

Ah, in contemplating these questions, my mind has cleared. How as the Lord forgiven me?? He has forgiven the sin of Adam and my sins through Justice, but with Love. He has forgiven us the great and just eternal recompense due for sin: our eternal separation from God. He opened the gates of heaven by his forgiveness, by his great love, and ended our separation. This is his Divine Mercy.

If a man betrays his spouse by having an affair with another woman, we can certainly empathize with the wife who says: “I hear you begging for my forgiveness, husband, and I DO forgive you. But in my heart, I can never love you again in the way I once did.” We can understand how hurt she must feel about the great betrayal. This is the type of betrayal and forgiveness Paul is speaking about in Colossians. Like the wife scorned, like the father of the Prodigal son, God had a deep hurt because of man’s rejection of him and his holiness, but Christ’s sacrifice satisfied that hurt. God the Father once said to man in effect: “I can forgive you, but I can never love you again.” But Christ by his death changed that to “I CAN forgive you, and I will always love you.”

The sinner still needs to seek forgiveness of God, but he can now ask in confidence because he knows the Father always stands ready to love him – just as before. In effect, the Father says: I sent my Son among men, not to sin as they did, but to make atonement for those sins. Throughout the Old Testament, God often threatened destruction of his sinful people, and even the whole world. Prophets offered sacrifices and begged for his mercy, over and over again. To man, God seemed like the spurned wife and responded: I see your sin offerings and you are forgiven, but I will never love you again in the way I once did. Then came His Son, who offered the supreme sacrifice for atonement, his life. Then man’s relationship with the Father changed. The Father said: To My Son I could not say “I will never love You the same”, for he is in me, and I in him. To say to him I cannot love you would be to deny my very self. With Jesus’ offering, the Father said: never again. Never again will I take back my love from man.

It is fitting that we meditate on this today, Divine Mercy Sunday. Today we celebrate God’s never-ending, never-limited mercy, his Divine Mercy – Justice tempered with Love. This is what Jesus did for us. Man offended God’s holiness; we were so unworthy to EVER be able to atone for that. Ever. Then came Jesus: Through my Son’s sacrifice, I forgave all men; I told them I will always love them. And further, I sent them the gift of my Holy Spirit, my own Love, to them, to be with them always. My love to man shall be everlasting. My mercy shall be everlasting. My Justice for man’s sin is cleansed by Love, with the pure love of the Trinity.

This is the forgiveness the Father gave us by the sacrifice of His Son: His eternal Love, the Trinity. Heaven is open to us, and it will never be closed. This was his covenant with us, his Divine Mercy. We could never have atoned for our offending his holiness, but he, through his Son, could. And this is the example he gave us on forgiveness: we CAN forgive someone who has offended us, even if he does not ask for our forgiveness. Like God, we can choose forgiveness through mercy, ready to love the other man, whenever he ready to turn to us to accept that love. It was a deep hurt God forgave; it’s deep hurts we must forgive.

For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Because you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another; forgive whatever grievance you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.

May Christ’s peace reign in your hearts, my friends, this day and always. Do not be anxious. : - ))