God’s Clemency

The 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

Back in the early 1800s, a mother approached Napoleon to ask for a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded that he be put to death.

The boy’s mother begged him, “But I don’t ask for justice. I plead for mercy.”

“But your son does not deserve mercy,” Napoleon answered.

“Sir,” the woman cried, “it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for.”

“Very well, then,” the emperor said. “I will have mercy.” And he spared the woman’s son.

Mercy is a beautiful gift. Maybe it’s the greatest form of love, because it contains kindness, forgiveness, compassion, gentleness, leniency all rolled into one… and it’s offered to someone who doesn’t deserve it.

And when the person who extends mercy is the one who has a duty to mete out punishment—like a judge, or the president, or a governor, for example—that mercy has a special name: clemency.

This is the very word we hear about God in our first reading today from the Book of Wisdom. No matter how much we may be deserving of punishment, God cherishes us so much that he offers us clemency—mercy, leniency and forgiveness—instead.

Jesus repeats that message in his parable. He says that in the world, there are people who do good—the wheat—and people who do bad—the weeds. Don’t pull out the weeds, he says. Let them grow side-by-side with the wheat. Maybe the weeds will become wheat.

What?! Weeds become wheat?

Sure, why not? If bread can become Jesus… if sinners can repent… if all things are possible with God, then I repeat: why not?

If this alone weren’t good enough news, look at the next little piece of the puzzle that Paul adds in his letter to the Romans. He says that because we are trapped in our weakness, lots of times we don’t even know how to pray for God’s mercy or for repentance. We may not even know that we need to pray! Paul writes, But the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. In other words, God even supplies the asking and the praying part for us!

Let this amazing message—this amazing reality—sink in for a moment.

Try to remember it the next time somebody does something awful and you wonder, “How can that rotten so-and-so get away with this? Why doesn’t God teach him a lesson?”

Even better, try to remember it the next time you are plagued with guilt or self-recrimination over something in your own life. God is carrying you and working to lift you out of the mess.

God’s breathtaking patience and gentleness towards us should lead us to some powerful conclusions about our own life of faith.

For one thing, we should be filled to the brim with hope. No matter what I have done, or am doing, in my life… no matter how unfortunate, sinful, degrading, hurtful… God still loves me, has mercy and compassion on me, and is not only willing but eager to forgive me and draw me back to himself… even if he himself has to supply the prayers. Maybe all I need to do to start is not to fight him! Not to put on the brakes and say no. But simply let the Holy Spirit penetrate my heart and gently redirect me. This hope says that nothing is hopeless… nothing at all is beyond fixing. With God, all things are possible…

A second powerful lesson is that we simply cannot and must not judge or condemn other people. How dare I be the recipient of God’s clemency—maybe without my even realizing how much!—and then turn around and have the unmitigated gall to believe that another of God’s children shouldn’t be treated with the same divine compassion? If you want a humbling exercise, go through your mind and think about your own personal prejudices against individuals or entire groups of fellow human beings. God is certainly merciful towards them. Why won’t I be?

Still a third important thing to learn is that God may want to use you to bring people to him. If you are cold, judgmental, standoffish or snide, I won’t want to have anything to do with you. But if you are kind, gentle, smiling, welcoming and forgiving—well, of course I’ll want to know you… and be your friend… and listen to you… and learn from you… and meet your God who helps you be a loving, peace-filled person… because I want to be like that, too. You see?

Most of you sitting in these pews are farmers or gardeners. You understand that by properly working the earth, you can produce a bountiful harvest. God is doing the same. His tools are love, mercy, clemency, leniency, forgiveness, patience… and us, his precious children who double as his farm implements.

May we be filled with awe and hope at his profound goodness and compassion… and may we learn from him and his Son.