The Wideness of God’s Mercy

Dear Friend,

Remember these hymn lyrics?  (They often come up in my reflection on Luke’s Gospel and I end up sharing them again and again!)

There's a wideness in God's mercy/Like the wideness of the sea

There's a kindness in God's justice/Which is more than liberty…

In Luke’s Gospel that “wideness of mercy” is evident throughout, starting with his account of the birth of Jesus and the angels’ appearance to shepherds. “Glory to God,” they sing, and “Peace to all people of good will.” And so it is with this Sunday’s Gospel, as a Samaritan leper (an outsider, like the “good Samaritan” a few weeks ago) becomes the hero of the story and, scholars tell us, the only person in all the Gospels who specifically thanks Jesus for his work. 

In the afterglow of our “Franciscan Fiesta,” I can’t help but think of St. Francis in all of this. He writes in his “Testament”, dictated to a brother at the end of his life, that his own conversion began with his experience with people with leprosy, to whom God led him and began to change him profoundly through his (Francis’s) practice of mercy.

In this year of giving special attention to the Eucharist, consider our Sunday gathering as the ritual action that shapes us for the practice of mercy. Mercy is proclaimed at the outset of each Mass, and appears at least once in the scriptures on Sunday. At the altar, we consistently refer to God as “merciful” and - most importantly - we enter into the central act of mercy, Jesus’s sharing of himself in bread and wine, inviting us into the cross of forgiveness and mercy.  

How is God’s mercy “wide” for you this week? Where is God’s justice more than liberty?

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan, ofm, Pastor