"Your Father is Merciful"

Today's Mass Readings

The first reading and responsorial psalm for today bring out an important theme of the season of Lent: human sinfulness. The passage from Daniel even numbers some of these sins, including ignoring the prophets and not following God’s commands. The word “rebelled” even appears twice in this passage; it indicates that to sin is deliberately to go against God. Sinning is hence not just a choice for something, but also a choice against something, namely, God. Recognizing this, the psalmist cries out “Lord, do not deal with us according to our sin” (103:10a). The rest of this psalm consists of pleading to God. All this emphasis on sin brings out another important theme of Lent: God’s merciful forgiveness. God’s mercy continues, even in the midst of the human sinfulness that turns us away from God as we choose against God. In fact, we might say that God’s mercy exists precisely because of our human sinfulness. Our sin allows for an enormous gift of God – his own Son’s life, death, and resurrection to redeem us from our sinfulness.

In the gospel passage, we hear that Son, Jesus the Christ, spell out the implications of having such a merciful Father. We are told to be merciful, stop condemning, forgive, and give. This merciful Father, who has given us so much, now expects much of us, his children. Hence, as this Lenten season continues, let us take the opportunity to reflect on the great mercy of God, thanking God for his great mercy in the face of our human sinfulness. Then we must identify where in our lives we need to show mercy, to stop condemning, to forgive and to give.

Today let us decide to work harder to do these things, while remaining open to receiving God’s grace of merciful forgiveness.

- Maria Morrow