Our Lord Never Gives Up

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Course 2022

One of the critical prophetic statements in the OT is in the book of Hosea (11:9). Hosea hears God tell him about the divine intention toward the kingdom of Israel: “I will not. . .destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man–the Holy One among you–and I will not come in wrath.” I like to take my scripture classes on a kind of thought experiment by way of explaining what it means:

Imagine one of you being divine for a couple of weeks. Not like Jesus Christ, who as Second Person of the Trinity emptied Himself of all power and glory to become man, all the way to a cross. No, imagine that you with all your history and weakness are elevated to divine status. You create the universe out of nothing, stars and planets, light, oceans and all they contain, dry land and all the plants and animals in them. Then, as the piece de resistance, you create humans, man and woman. Everything else in creation is working just as you commanded. You give the man and woman one simple command not to do something, and it’s something they can easily avoid. Then, thinking they know better than you how to live, they do that one forbidden thing. Would you not just declare them a failed experiment and start over? Would you treat them with the mercy that all of us have received in life? Of course not. God treats us with compassion and mercy because He has nothing but divine love for us. He’ll let us suffer the consequences of our human stupidity, but He won’t give up.

Moses is pictured as having a negotiation with the Lord when the Divine Justice is offended by the orgy that Israel engaged in at the foot of Mount Sinai. They’ve disobeyed the very first of the commandments by worshiping a golden calf, and then threw a lewd celebration full of drunkenness and fornication and probably violence. Moses reminds God of the merciful covenant He made for all time with Abraham, Isaac and Israel. By saying that, He was also reminding us that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not particularly perfect. God had chosen them to sire a nation dedicated to right worship and right living not because they were wonderful, but in spite of their weaknesses. God relented and the people were spared, but they had to do forty years of penance for their sins.

Saint Paul tells his protégé Timothy a similar story. He’s always aware that in his pride, Saul the Pharisee had conspired to murder deacon Stephen for his witness to Jesus as Messiah, and spent the next months trying to root out and destroy the new Jesus cult. But instead of destroying him in his terrible sin, he received the divine mercy because he was a victim of his own ignorance. When he says we can count on the saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, we know he’s speaking from personal experience. In fact, he tells us he is the worst of sinners. But Christ forgave him and made him an apostle precisely so he could humbly set himself as an example of mercy for all us other stupid sinners.

We have heard the story of the prodigal son and the indulgent father so many times we might forget what comes before it–the story of the shepherd who ignored good business practices and the woman who found a dime. The shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep in a wilderness so he can go off and find the one escapee, put it on his shoulders and come back. Come on! Unless he had some really great sheep dogs, he could not count on the main flock staying put while he went on the search. Pope Benedict often talked about how God loves us all the way to His own detriment. It’s true that God is love, but that’s the kind of self-giving love that we can scarcely imagine. I know a man who married a woman who already was showing symptoms of a fatal disease, and he has stayed with her and raised a family with her through thick and thin. It’s probably true that all of us have heard or experienced love of that kind, maybe even within our families.

So what is the take-away from these awesome revelations of God, these inspired Scriptures? First, we should never look at our sins–grievous though they may be–and delude ourselves that they are beyond God’s mercy. Confess your sins and rely on the forgiveness of God, but don’t presume on His mercy as an excuse for doing harmful things. Second, don’t look down on the man or woman who comes late to the feast, who leads a horrible life and then comes to the church in his deepest failure wanting forgiveness. Rejoice that one more soul is added to those who could be at the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb. Open your lips and let your mouth proclaim God’s praise.