The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Today's gospel shows us the wonders of God's mercy. He is constantly working for the salvation of the lost sinners. Let us consider this mercy of God.

The first mark of God's mercy is that He forgives. To forgive is to lay aside ill-will and aversion towards those who offend us and to wish them well from the heart. We men hardly ever forgive perfectly. Though we say, I forgive him who offended me, yet there often remains in us a certain coldness; we do not love him as before. And though we try hard to wish him well, certain bitterness is aroused, and it costs a good deal of violence always to suppress these emotions and entirely to destroy them. God forgives most perfectly. "He will put away our iniquities and He will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea." (Mich. 7:19) God sinks all our sins in the sea of oblivion; He no longer remembers them, and He never reminds us that we were once His enemies; He treats us as affectionately as if we had always been His most obedient children; His heart expands, so to speak, and He loves us in a higher degree than many of those who have never grievously offended him.

The second mark of His mercy is that He forgives willingly. It is often difficult for us to condescend to forgive those who have offended us. We must be reminded of the most serious truths of religion, of heaven and hell, in order to soften our hard hearts and dispose us to forgiveness. How differently does God forgive! He is ever ready to receive repentant sinners; He waits with desire for the moment when we return to Him. "I have spread forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving people, who walk in a way that is not good." (Is. 65:2) "Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened and I will refresh you." (Matt. 11:28) St. Augustine says, "God is more ready to impart forgiveness to the sinner than the sinner is to receive it." The two parables in the gospel of today give us a clear idea of how willingly God is ready to forgive us. But let us consider also the parable of the prodigal son. How affectionately does his father receive him! He not only does not reproach him, but even falls upon his neck and kisses him saying: "Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry, because this my son was dead, and is come to life again; was lost, and is found."

The third mark of God's mercy is that He forgives all sinners. There is no sinner, no matter how guilty, that can not be forgiven. Murderers, robbers, highwaymen, thieves, blasphemers, perjurers, adulterers, in a word, all sinners can find mercy with God. There is also no number of sins that could lock the fountain of God's mercy. If a man had the sins of the whole world upon his conscience, he need not despair of his salvation, but can hope for pardon. "If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow, and if they be red as crimson, they shall be made white as wool." (Is 1:18) St. Cyprian says: "Neither the greatness of the crimes, nor the shortness of life yet remaining, nor the extreme necessity of the last hour excludes from the friendship of God. His infinite love and mercy embrace all that return to him." Mary Magdalen was a great sinner; she lived such a wicked life that she was notorious far and wide; seven devils had dwelt in her heart (Luke 8:2), and yet she obtained pardon. Jesus says: "Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much." (Luke 7:47) The Samaritan woman, the adulteress, the thief on the cross had grievously sinned, but they also found grace. To convince ourselves of the infinite mercy of God, we only need to peruse the Lives of the Saints, and we will find among them many who at one time were great sinners, such as Margaret of Cortona, Mary of Egypt, and yet they are now in Heaven. Justly, therefore, David says: "According to the height of the heaven above the earth, He hath strengthened His mercy towards them that fear Him. As a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear Him." (Ps 102: 11-13)

With what confidence and consolation may not sinners look up to heaven when they consider the infinite mercy of God! Granted that their crimes, vices and iniquities are as numerous as the grains of sand on the sea shore; granted that they have become grey in sin and now stand at the portals of eternity, they must not lose courage, much less abandon their souls to despair; if their eyes are moistened with only a single tear, all their sins, in comparison with the mercy of God, are as insignificant as a drop of water compared with the ocean. "Where sin abounded, grace did more abound." (Rom 5:20)

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