JUDGMENT & MERCY – 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year C
In human life, we are blessed if we know how to balance judgment and mercy, displeasure and patience towards ourselves and others. All in authority from parents to popes face situations demanding a balance. If a right judgment is made on a moral action, for example, the person may think they are not being treated mercifully. If mercy is shown, the person may conclude that the moral evil they are doing is approved or not that bad. If someone shows impatience over something, the conclusion may be falsely drawn that they are displeased with everything.
The balancing of judgment and mercy, displeasure and patience isn’t a problem for God, but human interpretations of them can be. We can be sure God balances them out perfectly even if this is not always clear to us. The judgments we and others make can be incomplete and even inaccurate. The Lord’s judgment of us and our lives will always be totally accurate, complete, and just. So it does make a difference how we live our life, whether we pray, grow in faith, live the moral teachings of Christ, and seek the will of God. We will have to give an account of our life to the Lord. We do well to allow the Lord through His Word and Church to continually judge our life, which demands we are in a continuous conversion process as disciples of Jesus.
God’s judgment and mercy, displeasure and patience are meant to encourage us to repent, reform, be more faithful, more zealous, loving and responsive in our relationship with the Lord, and in the works of the Church and the Reign of God.
Jesus spoke of some who were apparently killed as an act of judgment on the part of God. He said they were not, necessarily, more guilty than others living in Jerusalem at that time, but were to serve as an example. The example of the judgment of some can become the cause of many seeking the mercy of God. “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” We profess in our Creed that Jesus will come in glory to judge the living and the dead. We don’t do the Lord justice if we hear His calls for reform and repentance and ignore them. We don’t do the Lord justice if we don’t believe His judgments of us will be totally truthful, merciful, and just.
At the same time, Jesus taught about the judgment of God. He taught about the patience of God in the parable about the man who had a fig tree which wasn’t producing any fruit. He had already waited for three years, which is a long time for a fig tree in Palestine not to produce fruit. He showed a lot of patience. The vinedresser pleaded with the owner to give him time to help the tree produce fruit before it was cut down. “…Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not, you can cut it down.” Jesus is the vinedresser who pleads before the Father for us. Clearly Jesus is displeased and offended when His people commit serious sins or don’t produce the fruits of the life of discipleship. That doesn’t mean He is not patient with us.
Paul spoke of God’s mercy and judgment, displeasure and patience to the Corinthians. The Church has found it needs to recall his Words at least every Lent. “I do not want you to be unaware…that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea…Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.” We have been baptized into Christ. Is it possible that with most of the people in the Church today, the Lord is not pleased? In light of the suffering love and cross of Jesus, there is a great deal of apathy, indifference, sin, and lack of zeal for the Lord, His Kingdom, Church, Gospel, and mission.
Paul wanted the Corinthians and us to learn from the example of those struck down in the desert to be more zealous for living out the mystery of the cross and resurrection in our lives. The judgment and mercy of the Lord, His displeasure at our lukewarm response to His great love for us, and His patience with us is our hope and motivation to be fruitful disciples.
Divine Mercy Reflection #279
“True love of God consists in carrying out God’s will.”
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