Forever Grateful for Mercy

Mercy is totally unmerited but must lead to repentance and change of life.

We certainly have been hearing a lot about mercy in recent years. It began with a grassroots movement of people all over the world who have been inspired by the revelations Jesus made to the Polish mystic St. Faustina Kowalska about the greatness of God's mercy. It is hard to find a church these days that doesn't have an image of the Divine Mercy displayed somewhere.

And, of course, this grassroots movement was given a powerful impetus when St. John Paul II canonized St. Faustina and instituted a major liturgical feast on the first Sunday after Easter, now called Divine Mercy Sunday.

When Pope Francis was elected, another great impetus was given to the emphasis on mercy. Pope Francis often talks about mercy, exhorting us to always lead with mercy in all our actions. He declared the time between the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 2015 and the Feast of Christ the King just before Advent of 2016 as a Jubilee Year of Mercy.

What Does Scripture Say?

On the popular level, though, there is seldom a clear understanding of what mercy really is and what kind of response to mercy is necessary for it to be effective in our lives. For example, when the word mercy is spoken, many associations can come to mind: second chances, overlooking sins, not being legalistic, the list could go on. While all of these could be seen as related to a proper understanding of mercy, greater clarity would be helpful if we are really to benefit from this emphasi—and not be deceived about what mercy really is.

So, where do we get our best understanding of mercy? God reveals it to us in Sacred Scripture.

There is a striking passage in the first letter of John that tells us from where we get our understanding of love. As we shall see, mercy is really a dimension of love: In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins (9-10).

It is from contemplating his love for us that we come to understand what true love and true mercy are.

Another scripture passage that Pope Francis and St. John Paul II have used to introduce their most important writings on mercy is Ephesians 2:1-10. There are amazing things here.

You were dead because of your sins and offenses, as you gave allegiance to the present age and to the prince of the air, that spirit who is even now at work among the rebellious. All of us were once of their company; we lived at the level of the flesh, following every whim and fancy, and so by nature deserved God's wrath like the rest. But God is rich in mercy; because of his great love for us he brought us to life with Christ when we were dead in sin. By this favor you were saved. . . . This is not your own doing, it is God's gift; neither is it a reward for anything you have accomplished, so let no one pride himself on it.

This passage gets us to the very heart of the Gospel. Here is where we discover the essential characteristic of mercy: It is totally unmerited! It is not given as a reward for anything. It is not given because we have become worthy of it. It is not given because we have earned itjust the opposite.

It is given just because God has decided to extend mercy to us out of his love to a race that justice demands be eternally punished for our rebellion against God that originated in the first big no of Adam and Eve. Mercy comes to us because of our sin that we can't get out of ourselves no matter what we do.

Reason for Death and Suffering

Do you know why we die? It is the just punishment for sin that God enacted after our representatives turned away from him and cast their lot with the devil. It was through the envy of the devil that death came into the world (Wis 2:24), not because of the will of God.

But, as we will see over and over, the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), and sin begets its own punishment, since sin is contrary to our nature and leads us further away from the happiness that we most deeply desire. But it is in Christ and through his blood that we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven, so immeasurably generous is God's favor to us (Eph1:7-8).

Unless we understand the awful truth of our situation, it is impossible to understand what mercy really is. As someone once said, unless we understand the bad new—what we deserve by nature is deathwhen we hear the good news of God's mercy it strikes us as no news. And this, unfortunately, is how many people understand mercy these days. They don't understand the seriousness of the sin that required such a sacrifice for our forgiveness!

Secondly, we need to comprehend what the holy justice of God requireda deed that could fittingly make up for millennia of sin and injustice, not only of the past but of the future. Such an offering in the wisdom of God could only be made by God himself taking on our nature in the man Jesus, who then became the new representative of the human race. Through his obedience even to death on the cross (Phil 2:8), Jesus overcame the disobedience of Adam.

Thirdly, we need to understand how utterly precious the mode of our redemption is. That God would do this for us!

Doesn't that loving act now lead us to praise, to gratitude, to confide our whole lives to such love? Doesn't it make us want to sing of his mercies, forever?

And won't we be forever grateful for God's mercy?

Yes, yes, and yes.

So, this indeed is mercyunearned pardon, gratuitous gift. How must we respond to such a gift for it to be effective in our lives?

Repentance Must Be the Response

Mercy requires a response for it to be fruitful. It requires a response by the very nature of the situation in which mercy comes to u—it comes to us in our sin, in our distance, in our indifference. And it comes to us in such a tender way that it respects our freedom.

So, when mercy is offered, we are faced with a choice: to receive mercy with gratitude or remain cold to it with indifference.

And remember: The indifference to the things of God that is so characteristic of life in this worldindifference to the many mercies and warnings that God gives todayputs us at great risk of condemnation at the hour of our death or when the Lord returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

Everywhere in the Gospels we find Jesus expecting mercy to result in genuine repentance and a changed way of life. Remember, the Prodigal Son had to make a decision, a change of directionI will return to my Fatherthat opened up the door of the son's heart to the restoration that the Father was always ready to extend to him.

And remember the woman caught in adultery? Jesus mercifully didn't condemn her but clearly told her not to sin again: Neither do I condemn you; go and do not sin again (Jn 8:11).

Is Merciful Living Required?

I would be remiss, though, not to mention that true conversion means not only abstaining from serious sin but also living a life of mercy. It's absolutely true that faith without works is dead (Jas 2:17).

In that key text from Ephesians 2, we read in verse 10: We are truly his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to lead the life of good deeds which God prepared for us in advance. God has prepared for us a life of good works. The good works of the Christian life are prayer, service, love, worship, evangelization, etc.

In his document proclaiming the Jubilee Year of Mercy (Misericordiae Vultus, henceforth MV), Pope Francis asks us to focus on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as a way of making sure we are reaching out beyond ourselves to the needs of others. Sometimes, the Holy Father so strongly emphasizes being non-judgmental that people don't notice that he is clearand in harmony with his predecessors, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and Scripturethat a response to mercy by way of conversion is necessary for mercy to be effective.

In the very first paragraphs of his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, he makes this point clear.

The Joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. . . . I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ. . . . Now is the time to say to Jesus: Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace.' . . . God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. (No. 1)

And in Misericordiae Vultus, he makes clear that accepting mercy involves faith, repentance, and a changed way of life. Pope Francis, for example, sees the central symbol of the Jubilee of Mercy, the Holy Doorspecially designated doors in certain churches around the world as well as in the primary basilicas of Romeas doors that lead those on pilgrimage to discover a path to conversion (MV, no. 3). The pilgrimages that are encouraged as part of the Jubilee of Mercy are seen by Pope Francis as an impetus to conversion (no. 14).

Will Everyone Be Saved?

Like John Paul II, Pope Francis also singles out St. Faustina Kowalska in his Jubilee Year of Mercy document as the great apostle of mercy (MV, no. 24). One of the great overlooked themes of St. Faustina's spiritual revelations is the consequences of rejecting mercy. On numerous occasions, Jesus emphasizes to her the importance of not neglecting so great a mercy as that which is offered by his sacrifice.

Some people mistakenly have gotten the impression from the helpful emphasis on mercy that sin is no big deal and that God will never allow anyone to be lost. This is not what the Scripture and the Church teach, nor is it what the Lord told St. Faustina as recorded in her mystical diary (Divine Mercy in My Soul: The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska): Oh, if sinners knew of My mercy, they would not perish in such great numbers (1396). I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation (1160).

And the sobering words of Jesus about the broad way that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to life (Mt 7:13-14) are reflected in a vision that Jesus gave to St. Faustina:

One day, I saw two roads. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And their number was so great that it was impossible to count them. (153)

The Lord regularly tells St. Faustina that she is to be a messenger preparing the way for his Second Coming and Final Judgment. While he extends mercy to the whole human race now, the time of judgment is coming when he will judge people on their responseor lack of responseto mercy.

The message to St. Faustina is the same as what is revealed to us in the Sacred Scriptures: Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourselves on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed (Rom 2:4-6). Despite the immense mercy of God, it is apparent from the message that many are nevertheless in danger of being lost, and some will definitely be lost. Whether more will be saved or lost and the exact meaning of many is not revealed, but the realities revealed to St. Faustina are sobering.

What Is Hell Like?

During an eight-day retreat in 1936, an angel led St. Faustina through hell. She describes what she saw and relates that the Lord told her to write it down.

Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one's condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying ita terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God's anger. . . . (Diary, 741)

Admittedly, these are difficult descriptions to read. And, indeed, the images used are referring to a reality that is hard to express in human words and the use of the particular images almost certainly imperfectly conveys this reality.

At the same time, it must be recognized that Jesus himself used images such as outer darkness (Mt 22:13) where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; the unquenchable fire (Mk 9:43); and the furnace of fire (Mt 13; 42-50).

What Should My Response Be?

Some may wish to emphasize that sinners bring this separation from God and union with the demonic on themselves by their own choices. Others may say that these images may be weak human figures that imperfectly point to the horror of separation from God and may not need to be taken literally.

Yet the shocking fact remains that St. Faustina is describing something that she believes God showed her precisely to warn sinners and call them to not presume on the mercy of God. And further, to ward off attempts to say that hell may exist but perhaps no one is there, St. Faustina continues:

I, sister Faustina, by the order of God, have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence. I cannot speak about it now; but I have received a command from God to leave it in writing. The devils were full of hatred for me, but they had to obey me at the command of God. What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: that most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell. (Diary, 741)

St. Faustina saw her mission as a way of preparing God's people for the return of the Lord. It took on particular urgency because of the severe consequences she knew would be the result for those who rejected mercy.

Unfortunately, without knowing these parts of her message, it is easy to absorb the Divine Mercy revelations into the practical universalism that is one of the devil's big lies and to disregard the consequences of unrepented sin. The message of divine mercy is that no sinner should be afraid to approach the Lord, who is infinitely merciful and eager to forgive sin. The application of mercy can't be made to souls, however, unless there is an acknowledgement that we need mercy and we respond to the offer of mercy with humility, repentance, and faith.

And this is exactly the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit (no. 1864).