OUR GOD IS MAD | KAIROS GLOBAL | AUGUST 2021

Author: Fr. Tomy Philip SAC

Intro: Through Scripture, teachings of the popes and the saints, Fr. Tomy Philip reflects on the ‘madness’ of God – his unfathomable and unburdening Mercy. 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end (Lamentations 3:22-23).

‘Mercy’ in Hebrew and Greek can be translated into modern languages as love, tenderness, compassion, charity, benevolence, gentleness and grace. The Biblical meaning represents the tenderness of God towards human misery and same is the attitude needed of every person who commits oneself to imitating Christ.

Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the other forefathers of our faith, the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is a merciful God. But ‘mercy’ is not so much a quality of God, a divine attribute. The word mercy denotes not simply of God on his own, but of God in relationship with his people, especially the weak, the poor and the sinners. In this sense, ‘mercy’ is more of a verb than a noun. It is the specific action of God who runs tirelessly towards the suffering humanity, a God who runs towards those under the clutches of sin, a God who hears the cry of the poor, a God who liberates the oppressed, a God who embraces all our inferior situations, including the greatest poverty – death – and raises us up to new life. St. Vincent Pallotti frequently addressed God as ‘my infinite mercy’ because he experienced the mercy of God in a very concrete and personal way, exclaiming: ‘My Jesus, my Judge who died for me so that I may not be condemned to death.’

God is love; and mercy is a particular way in which God loves us. It is the attitude of God in contact with our destitution, our suffering, our anguish. With much clarity Pope Francis says: ‘The message of Jesus is mercy. For me, and I say this with humility, it is the Lord’s strongest message’ {The Name of God is Mercy (NGM), p9}. Understanding deeply, we can say that ‘mercy’ is not a feeling, an emotion, or just a Biblical concept, but rather it is the experience of a God who comes to meet my sufferings, touch my sins, and heal my misery.

The Church recognises that ‘mercy is the divine attitude which embraces; it is God’s giving himself to us, accepting us, and bowing to forgive’ (NGM, p15). The post-Vatican II era can be considered as the Kairos of modern times, inviting everyone to plunge into the ocean of God’s mercy with the tagline – Misericordes sicut Pater – Be merciful like the Father. At the opening of the Vatican II Council, Pope John XXIII said: ‘The Catholic Church desires to show herself to be a loving mother of all, benign, patient, full of mercy and goodness toward children separated from her.’ Based on the reflections made by St. Augustine – Poor state of man and the mercy of God – Pope Paul VI prayed: ‘Grant that I may at least honour who you are, God of infinite bounty, invoking, accepting, and celebrating your sweet mercy’ (NGM, p15). Instituting the Feast of Divine Mercy, Pope John Paul II affirmed that ‘the Church lives an authentic life when it professes and proclaims mercy, the most amazing attribute of the Creator and Redeemer, and when it leads humanity to the font of mercy’ (NGM, p15). Convinced of Divine Mercy as the singular solution to the unsatisfied human existence, Pope Benedict XVI said: ‘Mercy is in reality the core of the Gospel message; it is the name of God himself, the face with which he revealed himself in the Old Testament and fully in Jesus Christ, incarnation of Creative and Redemptive Love. … Outside the mercy of God there is no other source of hope for human beings’ (30th March 2008). The time of Divine Mercy gathered momentum when the present Pontificate of Pope Francis declared the year of mercy inviting everyone to personalise Jesus who is the Misericordes Vultis – the merciful face of God.

Jesus revealed the nature of God who is infinite love and mercy. In the Gospels Jesus introduces to us a God who never tires of forgiving and being merciful to us. It is proper to God to lavish upon us his merciful gaze without considering the human frailty. We may be unfaithful, but God is always faithful, for he cannot deny himself (2Timothy 2:13). Worldly standards assume power in the suppression of others, self-glorification and unwillingness to forgive and let go. But God assumes power and omnipotence in forgiving and in being merciful. That is why one of the ancient Collects in the Latin Liturgy says: ‘O God, who reveal your power above all in your mercy and forgiveness…’ (26th week Ordinary time). With our eyes fixed on Jesus and his merciful gaze, we experience the love of the Most Holy Trinity, because Jesus is the revealed face of God who is infinite, immeasurable and inexplicable in his mercy. 

Thus, if mercy is the inseparable character of God’s life, then his being merciful is not conditioned to our being faithful or unfaithful. When we say that God shows mercy only to those who are faithful, then we limit his mercy and reduce him to the human level. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). ‘It is proper to God to exercise mercy, and he manifests his powerfulness and Godliness particularly in this way’ (St. Thomas Aquinas). Therefore, the mercy of God remains supreme and same irrespective of human frailties and willful stubbornness. Overwhelmed by the mercy of God, St. Vincent Pallotti exclaimed: ‘Our God is mad in being merciful!’ There’s a Preface to the Ambrosian Rite that says: ‘You bent down over our wounds and healed us, giving us a medicine stronger than our afflictions, a mercy greater than our fault. In this way even sin, by virtue of your invincible love, served to elevate us to the divine life’ [Sunday XVI].

Having taken refuge in the Divine Mercy, St. Faustina, the apostle of mercy said that the mercy of God is much greater than the sins of man. It compels us to believe that if we can compare all our human weaknesses and accumulated sins into a drop of water, then the mercy of God is like an ocean. St. Faustina continued to say that the mercy of God is the right of every sinner. We are God’s children (1John 3:2) and as long as we are the children of God, we can claim God’s mercy. God manifests his mercy ‘by caressing the wounds of our sin because he is involved in forgiving, he is involved in our salvation. … His mercy is infinitely greater than our sins, his medicine is infinitely stronger than our illnesses that he has to heal’ (NGM, p11, 25). Following the thoughts of Faustina, Pope Francis said: ‘It is love that takes the first step; it does not depend on human merits but on an immense generosity. It is the divine solicitude that nothing can stop, not even sin because he knows to go beyond sin, to overcome evil and to forgive’ (General Audience, 13 January 2016).

Caressed by the unfathomable and unburdening experience of God’s mercy, Pope Francis unfolded the mystery behind it when he said: ‘No human sin—however serious—can prevail over or limit mercy. … Our sin is like a jewel that we present to him to obtain the consolation of forgiveness….Giving a gift of jewels is a noble thing to do, and it is not a defeat but a joyous victory to let God win!’ (NGM, p31-32). Jesus offers the woman caught in adultery a gift: forgiveness. Even better, he offers her a new future, a fresh start (John 8:11). The same is with the Samaritan woman in the Gospel. Jesus provides them both with a second chance. It is the same with all those who lament over their irregular lives contrary to the Gospel. 

Pope Francis, the apostle of God’s mercy in the modern times invites each one of us to use the secret key to open the mystery of God’s mercy: ‘Only he who has been touched and caressed by the tenderness of his mercy really knows the Lord. For this reason I have often said that the place where my encounter with the mercy of Jesus takes place is my sin. When you feel his merciful embrace, when you let yourself be embraced, when you are moved—that’s when life can change, because that’s when we try to respond to the immense and unexpected gift of grace, a gift that is so overabundant it may even seem “unfair” in our eyes’ (NGM, p25).

After repeated instructions of the greatness of God’s mercy over the human failures, if someone is continuously disturbed by guilt, St. Maximillian Kolbe has an advice: ‘Whenever you feel guilty, even if it is because you have consciously committed a sin, a serious sin, something you have kept doing many, many times, never let the devil deceive you by allowing him to discourage you. Whenever you feel guilty, offer all your guilt to the Immaculate, without analysing it or examining it, as something that belongs to her…’ (Benedict Croell, A Living Sacrifice: Guidance for Men Discerning Religious Life).

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7) is a transition from gift to duty. ‘We can say that mercy is God’s identity card – God of Mercy, merciful God’ (NGM, p15). If being merciful is the identity of God who is our Father, then the identity of his children also should be the same being merciful. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36) is an imperative given to all of us. It is very natural for those who experience the comforting touch of God’s mercy, to mercifully extend their hearts and hands to the needy. Benevolence of the heart comes prior to beneficence. This benevolence is the tangible expression of being merciful. 

Being merciful is not a choice for a child of God but a necessity. Everyone who calls God as Abba Father, is internally motivated to be very powerful and effective by being the persons of forgiveness and mercy. It does not matter how many times we have fallen, but what matters is how many times we get up. The words of Pope Benedict XVI console us in this regard: ‘Holiness does not consist in never having erred or sinned. Holiness increases the capacity for conversion, for repentance, for willingness to start again and, especially, for reconciliation and forgiveness… Consequently, it is not the fact that we have never erred but our capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness which makes us saints’ (General Audience, 31 January 2007).

The balance between the awareness of our own limitations and the certainty of the unlimited mercy of God makes us accept our own failures and limitations with serenity without guilt and without the illusion of perfection. The awareness that our sins may be gradually and progressively destroyed by the mercy of God in the sacrament of reconciliation may enable us to seek fervently this sacrament frequently. Moreover, understanding the mercy of God signifies entering into a relationship with God who is rich in mercy with the attitudes of authentic humility, true contrition, confidence and gratitude. 

Imitation of Jesus, the apostle of the Eternal Father is a lifelong process. And in this pursuit of being merciful, we require the grace of the Holy Spirit to make the Church be merciful. The renowned author Raniero Cantalamessa challenges us in the following way: ‘A real change of heart will take place only when, first and foremost, people discover that they are loved for themselves and are precious in the eyes of God who, in every case, will never cease loving them. Communicating this truth is the loftiest duty of the Church and is the best way to preach mercy. To be convinced of this, we only need to look once more at how Jesus behaved during his life. What model or law is more authoritative than his example’ (Gaze of Mercy, p72). 

The world will be saved by Mercy – The beauty of Christ is his mercy, and that is what will save the world.

Fr. Tomy Philip SAC belongs to the Pallottine congregation and is the rector of Pallottigiri Minor Seminary in Trivandrum, South India. He is also the JY chaplain for the National Family team, Trivandrum zone and its campus team.