Our God is awesome because, for anyone who repents and seeks His mercy, He does not deal with us according to our sins. In other words, if you turn to Him, you won’t get what you deserve in the end. If this isn’t good news, I don’t know what might be.
In essence, the Gospel is pretty simple. Human life, “real” life, is what is complicated. A very complicated situation arises whenever someone who has done something truly terrible turns to the Lord and truly repents.
Of course, repentance consists of acknowledging the terrible sin(s) committed and accepting the just consequences that follow from them. Genuine repentance is not a way of avoiding responsibility or consequences. In his encyclical Spe salvi, Pope Benedict XVI noted:
Grace does not cancel out justice. It does not make wrong into right. It is not a sponge which wipes everything away, so that whatever someone has done on earth ends up being of equal value1He also pointed to something axiomatic: “Only God can create justice. And faith gives us the certainty that he does so.”2 We must humbly acknowledge that ultimately, only God can judge. How you live your life matters both in the here and now and in eternity. This is Christian realism at its most stark.
Today, the Lord does not comfort us. Rather, He provokes us: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”3 Today’s readings are summed up nicely in a passage from Ephesians:
And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. [And] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ4
In his magisterial address with which he opened the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pope Saint John XXIII insisted:
In our time, however, the Bride of Christ prefers to use medicine of mercy rather than severity. She wants to come to meet current needs, showing the validity of her doctrine rather than renewing sentences5In his first message for Lent, Pope Leo invited us
to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor. Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgement, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves6Striving to be like Christ means endeavoring to follow His follow His most difficult teachings. To love your enemies, pray for them, do them good. In the verses leading up to our short passage from Luke for today, Jesus asks:
For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same7Christians reject the lex talionis, which insists on an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Like Tevye, the main character in Fiddler on the Roof, we realize that the result of living according to the lex talionis only leaves everyone blind and toothless.8
By following Christ Jesus, we go a better way.
1 Pope Benedict XVI. Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi, sec. 44. 2007.↩
2 Ibid.↩
3 Luke 6:36.↩
4 Ephesians 4:30-32.↩
5 John XXIII. Gaudet Mater Ecclesiae. Address to Open the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. 1962.↩
6 Pope Leo XIV. Message for Lent 2026.↩
7 Luke 6:32-33..↩
8 Fiddler on the Roof, film version, directed by Norman Jewison, 1971.↩
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