IX — INFINITE MERCY

Presence of God. — Make me understand, O Lord, the secrets of your mercy so that I may profit from it fully.

Meditation

1 — God’s love toward us assumes a wholly particular character suited to our nature as fragile and weak creatures: the character of mercy. Mercy is love that stoops over misery to lift it up, redeem it, raise it to itself. It almost seems that God loves us attracted by our weakness, not because this is lovable, but because He, infinite goodness, has compassion on it and wants to supply it with his mercy. With his infinite perfection He wants to heal our imperfection, with his purity our impurity, with his wisdom our folly, with his goodness our selfishness, with his strength our fragility. God, supreme and eternal good, wants to be the remedy for all our ills “because He knows well of what we are made and remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14).

And since our greatest evil - indeed, our only true evil - is sin, behold, infinite mercy wants to be the remedy for this extreme evil as well. Certainly God hates sin, but while because of it He is constrained to withdraw his friendship, his grace from the sinner’s soul, his mercy still knows how to find a way to continue loving him. In fact, if He can no longer love him as friend, He always loves him as creature, as the work of his hands; He loves him for the good that still remains in him and gives hope of conversion. God’s mercy is so great that no misery, however deep, can exhaust it; no sin, not even the most abominable, provided it is repented, can stop it. One thing alone has this sad power: man’s proud will that shuts itself disdainfully in its misery, refusing to recognize its need of infinite mercy. Before such cases, though divine mercy is immense, the grave words of the Gospel are fulfilled: “God scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, casts down the mighty from their thrones... and sends the rich away empty” (cf. Lk. 1:51-53).

2 — God’s mercy has no limits: never does He reject us because of our sins, never does He tire of our infidelities, never does He refuse us pardon, but is always ready to forget any offense, to repay our ingratitudes with his graces. And He never reproaches us for our wrongs, not even when, having just received pardon, we immediately fall again. Not even then does He grow indignant at our persistence in evil, our weakness in good, but always extends his hand to us, desiring to help us. Even when men condemn us, God uses mercy toward us, absolves us, sends us away justified, as Jesus sent away the adulterous woman justified: “Go, and do not sin any more” (Jn. 8:11). By his example and his words Jesus has shown us the inexhaustible greatness of God’s mercy: think of the prodigal son, the lost sheep, Magdalene, the good thief. But He also said to us: “Be merciful as your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:36). How far does our mercy reach? To what point do we know how to bear with others’ defects? The measure of our mercy toward neighbor will be the measure of God’s mercy toward us, because Jesus said: “You will be measured with the same measure with which you have measured” (Mt. 7:2).

To pour upon us the fullness of his mercies God does not require that we be impeccable, but that we be merciful toward our brothers, and He requires moreover that we be humble. It is not enough, in fact, to be miserable in order to draw divine mercy upon oneself; one must recognize one’s own misery and turn to God with full trust. “What pleases Jesus,” Therese of Lisieux said, “is to see me love my littleness and my poverty; it is the blind hope I have in his mercy. This is my treasure” (Letter). This is the treasure that supplies for all our miseries, weaknesses, relapses, infidelities, because by this humility and this trust we take hold of infinite mercy. And having this at our disposal, how could we be discouraged because of our misery?

Colloquy

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget so many of his benefits. No, I will not forget that You have forgiven all my faults, healed all my evils, crowned me with tenderness and compassion, satisfied my desires with good things.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so, Lord, You have compassion on those who fear You, because You know well of what we are made and remember that we are dust. Everything passes, but your goodness, O God, endures forever and goes from generation to generation” (cf. Ps. 103).

“O Lord, I have long believed that You are more tender than a mother... and I know that a mother is always ready to forgive the involuntary faults of her little child. Yes, from the moment I was given to understand the love of your Heart, it freed my heart from every fear. The memory of my faults humbles me and induces me never to lean on my strength, which is nothing but weakness; but this memory, O Lord, speaks to me still more of your mercy and your love. How then will my faults not be destroyed if I cast them with filial confidence into the furnace of your love?

“O Jesus, why is it not given me to tell all souls your ineffable condescension? I know it: if, by an impossible chance, You found one weaker than mine, You would delight in filling it with still greater graces, provided it abandoned itself with full confidence to your infinite mercy” (cf. T.B.G. St. 8; Lt.; St. 11).