VIII — BE MERCIFUL

Presence of God. — O Lord, enlarge my heart in the consideration of your infinite mercy, so that I may learn to treat my brethren with bowels of mercy.

Meditation

1 — Jesus revealed to us the mystery of the merciful love of the heavenly Father not only for our comfort and personal profit, not only to impel us toward God with full trust, but also to teach us to show mercy toward our neighbor: “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:36). Good draws to good, goodness generates goodness; and thus, the more a soul penetrates the mystery of infinite mercy, the more it feels urged to emulate it in its relations with others. When we feel irritated against someone, disinclined to indulgence and forgiveness, we should plunge with all our strength into consideration of God’s infinite mercy in order to drown in it every hardness, every resentment, every anger. If we have some experience of our misery, it will not be hard for us to realize that there is not an instant of our life in which we do not need God’s mercy; and this mercy is so long-suffering that it never rejects us for our relapses, never reproaches us for having forgiven us many times, never denies us its fatherly and pacifying embrace. Nothing more than this consideration softens the soul and renders it full of goodness toward others. Oh, if others could feel in our manner a reflection of infinite mercy!

Peter had not yet understood deeply the mystery of merciful love when he asked Jesus whether it was enough to forgive neighbor up to seven times; and the answer must have seemed exaggerated to him: “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Mt. 18:22). But after having experienced Jesus’ goodness, who so generously forgave his triple denial without even addressing to him a word of reproach, his soul must have changed completely; and he, so fiery, so ready to anger and threats, will address to the primitive Church this tender exhortation to goodness and forgiveness: “Be of one mind, compassionate, lovers of the brethren, merciful; do not return evil for evil, or curse for curse; but instead bless, for to this you have been called” (1 Pt. 3:8). How can we not hear in these words an echo of those of Jesus: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Mt. 5:44)?

2 — Reading the Gospel it is easy to note how Jesus’ words, so meek and sweet even with the greatest sinners — let us remember those addressed to Magdalene, to the adulteress, and even to Judas — become exceptionally severe and almost harsh when faced with failures in charity toward neighbor. God loves us infinitely, desires nothing but to pour upon our souls the torrents of his boundless mercy; and yet his love and mercy halt and turn into severity in proportion as He finds us hard and exacting toward neighbor. We have such need of the Lord’s mercy; we have such need that He not judge us, but rather pity us, forgive us, show us mercy; and then why should we not show as much toward our brethren? Perhaps because they have offended us, made us suffer? And have we not offended our God? Have we not, with our sins, cooperated in Jesus’ most bitter Passion? Too often we are like the cruel servant in the parable who, after receiving from his master the cancellation of a great debt, would not in turn cancel a much smaller one for his companion, but cast him into prison until he should pay the last cent. How can we hope the Lord will be lavish with us in his pardon and mercy if we are so miserly with our neighbor? Let us not forget the words we repeat every day in the Our Father: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” (Mt. 6:12), and let us see that they are not our condemnation, because Jesus said: “If you forgive men their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your sins” (ibid., 14-15). Therefore it is in our hands to be judged one day with greater or lesser mercy.

Colloquy

“O Jesus, how highly You esteem charity that leads us to love one another! You could in fact have taught us to say: ‘Forgive us, O Lord, because we do much penance, because we pray much, because we fast, because we have left everything for You and love You greatly.’ You did not even say: ‘Forgive us because we are ready to sacrifice for You even our life,’ and other things of that sort, but only: Forgive us because we forgive!

“Here is a truth we must often consider: You, O Lord, have willed to bind so great a grace as forgiveness of our sins, deserving eternal fire, to a condition so simple as our forgiving too. But what should a poor soul like mine do, one that has had so few occasions to forgive and many, instead, to be forgiven? Yet, O Lord, accept my desire: it seems to me that to obtain your forgiveness I would be ready to forgive everything.... But for the present I recognize myself so guilty before You that I see those who insult me still treating me too well.

“O Lord, I have so little to forgive that You must forgive freely! How well your divine mercy is manifested here!

“But is there perhaps someone else who, being like me in this, has not yet understood this truth? If there is, I ask in your name, O Lord, that she recall it often and not make account of certain trifles called offenses. Yet at times one has the courage to believe one has done far too much by forgiving one such misery! And then, as if we had made a great effort, we present ourselves to You, O Lord, to ask pardon under pretext of having forgiven too!... Ah! my Lord, make us understand that we understand nothing and that our hands are empty! Deign, yes, to forgive us, but solely for your mercy!” (St. Teresa of Jesus, Way 36, 7 and 2-6).