The mercy of God is not an abstract theological principle. It is the fruit of our Lord’s passion and death. In other words, it is the logical progression of selfless love.
This mercy has found us, not because we deserved it or because we earned it. It is God’s free unmerited gift to us. It is his way of saying to each of us individually, “You are no accident, you belong to me, and nothing can separate us from each other.”
Is this hard for you to believe? Essentially it means that God sees something beautiful inside of you that you cannot always see, feel or even believe. It means that God is not content with remaining on the surface, but dives deep into the depths of our soul to rescue that image of beauty with which we have been created.
Accepting God’s mercy then is not about us. It is about affirming those unfathomable “riches and wisdom and knowledge of God,” (Rms 11:33) that is within us. It is about placing our hope entirely on him who has proved himself over and over again to be for us and not against us. Even if nobody ever recognizes the beauty that is yours God will never forget it. He sees you and rejoices and nobody can take that away from you.
God bless you,
Fr. Jeremiah Myriam Shryock CFR
St. Felix Friary, Yonkers, NY
What a beautiful writing. Wé get so hammered by the world that wé forget how much God really does love us!
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