378. Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)

Meditations no. 606 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

God’s mercy and the sense of divine filiation.

TODAY THE Church speaks to us, in the readings of the Mass, of sin, of contrition and of mercy. Of the sin of idolatry into which the people of Israel fell shortly after leaving Egypt; of the contrition of St. Paul after having persecuted the Church and encountered Christ; and of the mercy of God, in the three parables narrated by St. Luke in the Gospel: “That of the sheep lost and then found, that of the drachma that had gone astray and was found, and that of the son that had died and came back to life; and all this so that, taught with this threefold remedy, we may be able to heal our wounds, for a rope of three strands is not easy to break (Acts 4:12).”

These realities - sin, contrition, mercy - take on a special meaning for those who know they are children of God. First of all, mercy, which the Gospel parable presents to us as an attribute of divine fatherhood. “Who is this father, this shepherd and this woman? Do they not represent God the Father, Christ and the Church? Christ carries you on his shoulders, the Church seeks you and the Father receives you. One, because he is a Shepherd, does not cease to carry him; the other, as Mother, ceaselessly seeks you, and then the Father clothes you again. The first, by the work of his mercy; the second, by taking care of you; and the third, by reconciling him with himself. Each of them fits perfectly one of these qualities: the Redeemer comes to save, the Church assists and the Father reconciles. The same mercy is present in every divine action, although grace varies according to our merits.”

God is a Father rich in mercy, who opens his arms to the sinful son when he returns contrite, to embrace him, clothe him and give him anew the lost filial dignity. Not only does he feel sorry for the lamentable state in which his son had ended up, but he obtains a greater good from this situation. For mercy does not consist only in a compassionate gaze. “Mercy is manifested in its true and proper aspect, when it promotes and obtains good from all the forms of evil existing in the world and in man.”

Sin is not the last word in the lives of men. The last word is spoken by God, and it is the word of his saving and merciful love and, therefore, the word of our divine sonship. The awareness of being children of God fills us with confidence and serenity because, beyond justice, we know that we can rest in the mercy of our heavenly Father. I, St. Paul writes, was once a blasphemer, a persecutor and an injurist. But I have obtained mercy. Mercy is the way that God’s love has found to restore to us the supernatural life and dignity of his children, lost by mortal sin or damaged by venial sin.

The parable of the prodigal son shows us that “love is transformed into mercy when the precise norm of justice must be overcome”. What peace this merciful love must give us! Rest in divine filiation. God is a Father full of tenderness, of infinite love. Call him Father many times a day, and tell him - alone, in your heart - that you love him, that you adore him: that you feel the pride and strength of being his child.

Not even the most violent temptations should rob us of peace, because we know that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength, but will grant us his grace so that we can overcome any trial. With the psalmist, St. Josemaría asks: the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? And then he answers: no one: treating our Father in Heaven in this way, let us not admit fear of anyone or anything.

But if we want to rest in that mercy, let us not forget the words of Jesus: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy.” The awareness of our sonship, which leads us to trust in God’s mercy, must move us to mercy for others, seeing in each of them other children of God: not to separate ourselves from anyone because of their defects or faults, to have a miserum cor, a merciful heart to the measure of the Heart of Christ, which took upon itself our infirmities and bore our sorrows.

The Contrition of the Children of God and the Sacrament of Penance.

IF MERCY is proper to God our Father, contrition is the attitude that corresponds to children. We must learn to be a child of God (…). so that whatever kind of error we may make, even the most unpleasant, we will never hesitate to react, and to return to that master path of divine filiation that ends in the open and expectant arms of our Father God.

The sense of divine filiation led St. Josemaría to affirm that the best devotion is acts of contrition. If the Christian knows himself to be a child of God, his attitude in the face of faults and sins will not be that of withdrawing and hiding from his Father, like Cain after his sin, but that of reacting immediately, making an act of contrition, which will come to our hearts and lips with the promptness with which blood comes to the wound.

If you have made a mistake, small or great, our Founder insisted, run back to God!

-Savor the words of the Psalm: ‘cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despides’ - the Lord will never despise or disregard a contrite and humiliated heart.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes contrition, in the words of the Council of Trent, as “a sorrow of the soul and a detestation of the sin committed, with the resolution not to sin again”. The act of contrition itself, and not only the forgiveness that is obtained, is already a gift of God, not a mere human decision, as is seen in the prophet’s plea: convert me and I will be converted!, for you are the Lord, my God. Conversion is first of all the work of God’s grace, which moves us to return to him. However, the same prophet also hears the divine voice that calls for human correspondence: if you turn to me, I will return to you, and you will remain in my presence. The creature can accept or reject the grace of repentance. We must beg the Lord to convert us. I expect everything from you, my Jesus: convert me, our Father prayed. And at the same time, we must be attentive to support the action of grace, saying to the Lord, also like our Father: My God, when am I going to convert?

We can say this in the dialogue of our prayer. Let us open our hearts to him. “To have recourse with filial piety to God’s forgiveness is part of the heart of our relationship with the Lord”, as his children.

The principal manifestation of contrition and conversion consists in having recourse well prepared to the sacrament of Penance, instituted by Jesus Christ precisely for the remedy of sins. I advise everyone to have as their devotion … to perform many acts of contrition. And an external, practical manifestation of this devotion is to have a particular affection for the Holy Sacrament of Penance. Approaching this sacrament is a clear proof of rejection of sin and conversion to God. Moreover, there is no better act of repentance and reparation than a good Confession.

Knowing that we are a child of God and at the same time recognizing ourselves as sinners, leads us to see Confession as the moment in which the Father goes out to meet the prodigal son who returns repentant. In this wonderful Sacrament, the Lord cleanses your soul and floods you with joy and strength not to faint in your fight, and to return tirelessly to God, even when everything seems dark to you. How do we go to that appointment with God each week? What is our contrition, our pain for the lack of correspondence? What is our gratitude for divine mercy and our resolution to fight for love?

To begin and to begin again, like the prodigal son.

WITH the EXCEPTION of the Blessed Virgin, no one who has the use of freedom is exempt from guilt. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

But the mercy that God shows must always push us to return. My children, it is better not to leave his side, our Father said, not to abandon him; but if you ever leave through human weakness, run back. He always welcomes us, like the father of the prodigal son, with more intensity of love.

So that we may always remember this, our Founder told us: do not forget that a saint is not the one who does not fall, but the one who always rises, with humility and with holy stubbornness. If in the Book of Proverbs it is said that the righteous fall seven times a day (cf. Prov 24:16), you and I - poor creatures - must not be surprised or discouraged by our own personal miseries. It is necessary to renew the interior struggle again and again. The spiritual life is - I repeat it repeatingly, by intent - a continuous beginning and rebeginning.

“To begin again? Yes!: every time you make an act of contrition - and we should do many every day - you start again, because you give God a new love.

Being children of God, we must often play the role of a prodigal son, deciding to return to the arms of our heavenly Father whenever we have moved a little away from his intimacy. God is not scandalized by men. God does not tire of our infidelities. Our Father in Heaven forgives every offense, when the son returns again to Him, when he repents and asks for forgiveness. Our Lord is so Father, that He prevents our desire to be forgiven, and He goes forward, opening His arms to us with His grace.

See, I am not inventing anything. Remember that parable that the Son of God told us so that we might understand the love of the Father who is in heaven: the parable of the prodigal son (cf. Lk 15:11ff.).

While he was still a long way off, Scripture says, his father saw him, and his bowels were softened, and he ran to meet him, threw his arms around his neck and gave him a thousand kisses (Lk 15:20). These are the words of the sacred book: he gave him a thousand kisses, he ate him with kisses. Can we speak more humanly? Can we describe God’s fatherly love for men in a more graphic way? (… ).

Human life is, in a certain way, a constant return to our Father’s house. To return through contrition, that conversion of heart that presupposes the desire to change, the firm decision to improve our lives, and which is therefore manifested in works of sacrifice and self-giving. To return to the Father’s house, through that sacrament of forgiveness in which, by confessing our sins, we put on Christ and thus become his brothers and sisters, members of God’s family.

God awaits us, like the father in the parable, with his arms outstretched, even if we do not deserve it. Our debt does not matter. As in the case of the prodigal son, we only need to open our hearts, to long for our Father’s home, to marvel and rejoice at God’s gift of being able to call us and to be, despite so much lack of correspondence on our part, truly his children.

Holy Mary, Mother of Mercy, Refuge of sinners, Refugium nostrum et virtus, lead us by the hand again and again to intimacy with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.