“The Chains of God’s Mercy” - 07.24.22 (17th Sunday OT- C)

“The Chains of God’s Mercy”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

Regina Coeli Parish - Church of the Assumption - Bellevue, PA

Mass Readings - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072422.cfm

I think many people are of the mindset that the God of the Old Testament is this angry tyrant who always has too be held back from destroying the earth and wiping out humanity. While the God of the New Testament, Jesus Christ, is the nice, loving and merciful God. What many people fail to realize is that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same God. When Christ came He came to reveal who God the Father is. God didn’t all of a sudden change, but from the very beginning He has been a God of infinite tenderness, love, and mercy.

The anger that God expresses in the Scriptures is the type of anger that a good and loving father experiences when harm is done to His children. We live in a world filled with sin which causes great suffering and damage to us. If there is one thing that God hates, it is sin because of how much hurt and woundedness sin has caused His children here on earth.

In the first reading, we have this interaction between God and Abraham over Sodom and Gomorrah, and it looks as if Abraham is the merciful one, and God is the erratic angry tyrant who has to be held back from destroying the city and all the people in it. However, this is not the case.

What is going on here is that God is testing Abraham. God is about to make a great nation out of Abraham and God needs to know if Abraham will act with the same merciful love as God does. Abraham passes the test as he pleads to God to not sweep away the innocent with the guilty. Abraham begins with requesting to God to not destroy the city for the sake of 50 innocent people which God agrees to, and Abraham continues to push the limit further and further and says even for the sake of 10 innocent people, for God not to destroy the city, which the Lord says, “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it.”

One of my favorite images of God’s merciful love comes from St. Catherine of Siena’s book “The Dialogue.” She writes this book in the form of asking God the Father questions and Him giving His responses. In the Dialogue, the Father is upset that even after He has redeemed mankind through the Blood of His Son that humanity continues to sin greatly. That we continue to reject and ignore this incredible gift that He has given to us, and how we deserve great punishment for it.

However, He mentions to St. Catherine that there is one remedy to calm His wrath which He says is: “my servants who care enough to press me with their tears and bind me with the chain of their desire.” (p.54) He continues saying, “You see, you have bound me with that chain – and I myself gave you that chain because I wanted to be merciful to the world.” (p.54)

This is an incredibly beautiful image of God the Father that is given to us through St. Catherine of Siena. This image of Him being bound and chained up by the tears of His servants interceding on behalf of the world. Not only that, but He says, that He has given us the chain to bind Him with because He desires to be merciful to the world. It is not us controlling God and strapping Him down and chaining Him in order to prevent Him from inflicting His just punishment on us. No, He actually gives us the chain and allows Himself to bound up by our tears and desire for Him to show mercy on the world.

This is what we are seeing playing out in the passage with Abraham from the first reading. This is what is happening every day of our lives as God’s faithful plea to Him with tears and burning desire for God to show mercy on us and on the whole world.

This is who God really is. He is a God of mercy who doesn’t enjoy the destruction of His people, but instead desires our salvation and to pour out His mercy upon us. Through our prayers of intercession for the salvation of the world, God allows Himself to be chained, in order to prevent Himself from inflicting the just punishment that we are owed because of our great sinfulness.

In these readings today, He is calling us to be like Abraham, who showed God-like mercy by interceding on behalf of the innocent of Sodom and Gomorrah. God is telling us that our prayers for His mercy work. He is calling us today to be persistent in prayer. This persistence in prayer that God may show mercy to the whole world for their great sins.

If we were to continue to read further on in the Book of Genesis we learn that Abraham’s nephew Lot, and his family, who were in Sodom at the time, were saved from the city’s destruction. God enacted His justice due to the grave sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, but He waited until Lot and his family were led out of the city before inflicting His punishment. We can attribute Lot and his family being rescued from the destruction of Sodom because of the prayers of Abraham to not destroy the innocent with the guilty.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us to be persistent in prayer. Persistence in prayer applies to anything that we are praying for, but for today we are going to focus on the persistence of prayer in relation to praying for God’s mercy to be poured out onto the world. We must continue to pray for our world, our Church, our country, and for one another. We have sinned in many grave ways against God and He has every right to wipe us out if He wanted.

However, He doesn’t want our destruction, but instead wants our redemption. He has chained Himself through the persistent prayers and tears and burning desire from His faithful who are interceding out of love for the whole world, pleading to God to have mercy, and not allow the innocent to be punished with the guilty.

We also heard in today’s Gospel, Jesus giving us this beautiful and simple prayer of the Our Father. We can use the Our Father as a powerful prayer to intercede for the whole world and for one another, especially for the people in our lives who have fallen away from the faith.

We must never tire in praying for the salvation of the world. We must never tire in praying for God’s mercy to be poured down upon us. God desires for us to constantly intercede to Him on behalf of the whole world, and for Him to show mercy on us. He desires to have mercy on us. And He wants us, as His children, to show the same merciful love that He shows to all humanity.

If you don’t know where to start in praying for the salvation of the world, simply pray one Our Father. We have no idea the great wonders that this simple prayer will do in inviting God’s mercy to shine on the whole world.

So let us end today by praying an Our Father for our world, our Church, our country, our loved ones, and ourselves. That God may have mercy on us all.

“Our Father…”

Sources:

St. Catherine of Siena. The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena. Translated by Suzanne Noffke, O.P. Paulist Press, 1980.