March 26, 2022
God’s love for us assumes a very special character, one that is adapted to our nature as frail, weak creatures: the character of mercy. Mercy is love bending over misery to relieve it, to redeem it, to raise it up to itself. It almost seems that God, in loving us, is attracted by our weakness – not because it is lovable but because, being infinite goodness, His compassion stoops to compensate for it by His mercy. He wants to heal our imperfection by His infinite perfection, our impurity by His purity, our ignorance by his wisdom, our selfishness by His goodness, our weakness by His strength. God, the supreme, eternal good, want to be the remedy for all our ills, for He knows how weare formed, He remembers that we are dust (Ps 103, 14).
Since our greatest evil – rather, the only real evil – is sin, infinite mercy would be the remedy. Assuredly, God hates sin… but His mercy still finds a way of continuing to love the sinner…. God’s mercy is so immense that no misery, however great, can exhaust it. Not even the most infamous sin, provided it is repented of, can halt it. This sad power is reserved to one thing only: the proud will of man by which he disdainfully shuts himself up in his wickedness, not wishing to admit how great is his need of God’s infinite mercy. In such a case, in spite of the immensity of divine mercy, the solemn words of the Gospel are fulfilled: God has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He has put down the mighty from their seats, the rich he has sent empty away.
FATHER GABRIEL OF SAINT MARY MAGDALEN, O.C.D
Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen (+1952) was a Belgian Carmelite priest, teacher, and spiritual director.
