This year in particular (the year of mercy), we are summoned to reflect on the concept of mercy. Many think of mercy as an overlooking of sin rather than as a remedy for it. To some, the fact of God’s mercy is a sign that He doesn’t care about sin and is content to leave us in it. Those who speak to the reality of mercy are often called harsh, mean-spirited, etc. Many set mercy and sin in opposition to one another.
The Lord Jesus unites these realities together. For the Lord, mercy is necessary because there is sin, not because sin is “no big deal.” It is because sin is a big deal that mercy is needed and is glorious.
Bishop Robert Barron aptly states, Many receive the message of divine mercy as tantamount to a denial of the reality of sin, as though sin no longer matters. But just the contrary is the case. To speak of mercy is to be intensely aware of sin and its peculiar form of destructiveness (Vibrant Paradoxes: The Both/And of Catholicism, p. 1).
So mercy does not deny sin; it acknowledges it and supplies an often-challenging remedy. Jesus shows mercy by calling us from our sin and healing us from its effects.
This understanding is evident in the Gospel from Friday (Matt. 9:9-13 – Friday of the 13th week of the year).
As Jesus passed by,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed him.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners came
and sat with Jesus and his disciples.
The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples,
“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
He heard this and said,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
Go and learn the meaning of the words,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
Notice three things from this Gospel about the relationship of mercy to sin.
I. In His mercy, Jesus reckons us as sinners and regards us as sick. Jesus states plainly, “I have come to call sinners” (this means us). He also says that those who are well do not need a doctor, but the sick do (this means us).
We live in times when many have been deceived; they call their sin good and something to be proud of. They say, “God made me this way,” or “God likes me just the way I am.” No, to those such as these the Lord Jesus says, “You are sick. You are a sinner.” An antiphon in the Breviary says, God sees all men as sinners, that he might show them his mercy.
So in His mercy Jesus does not overlook sin or call it something good; he calls it what it is: sin and sickness.
II. In His mercy, Jesus summons us to change. In this Gospel, Jesus calls Matthew away from His tax post. He says, “Follow me.” The translation is “Stop what you are doing, come away from it, and follow me out of here.” To the woman caught in adultery He says, “Do not sin again.” Jesus began His ministry by saying, “Repent and believe the Gospel.” To repent (metanoiete) means to change, to come to a new and different mind.
The changes Jesus insists upon are too numerous to list in their entirety, but among them are that we become free of vengeful anger, lust, greed, retaliation, and unforgiveness, and that we become more generous, loving, serene, faithful, and trusting.
Thus in His mercy Jesus does not confirm us in our sin; He summons us away from it. He summons us to change and equips us to do so. His merciful call is, “Come away from here. Enough of this; follow me.”
III. In His mercy, Jesus heals sinners of sin – Jesus uses the image of a doctor and states plainly that sick people (sinners) need a doctor. Jesus is that doctor. A doctor does not look at a sick patient and say, “You’re just fine the way you are” or “I affirm you.” That would be malpractice. Jesus sees sin for what it is. He calls it such and prescribes the necessary medicines. He will also likely speak to a person’s lifestyle and recommend needed changes. This is how a doctor heals.
Jesus invokes the image of a doctor for what he does. He diagnoses and says, “This is bad. This is sickness. This is sin.” He then applies healing remedies such as the Sacraments, the Holy Liturgy, His Word, the carrying of the cross, active and passive purifications, punishments due to sin, solid moral teaching, and holy fellowship. Like a doctor, Jesus summons us from a bad and unhealthy life to a good and healthy one.
Thus, in his mercy Jesus heals our sins. He does not ignore them or approve them and certainly does not call them good or something to celebrate. In his mercy he heals them, he ends them.
So mercy is not a bland kindness. It is not mere flattery that pretends sin does not exist or matter. Beware of fake, flattering mercy. True mercy says, “Sin is awful. Let’s get out of here and go to a far better place.”
Matthew got up and followed Jesus. How about us?
There’s a Jewish root to the difference between mercy and pseudo-mercy.
When the Messiah comes, He will redeem Israel: physically by resurrection and spiritually by sanctification. So Israel will both no longer sin and no longer die. Israel will practice mercy instead of lip-service, and the true fasting of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc. instead of the false fasting of hypocrisy, self-righteousness, etc.
Jesus, being the Messiah, teaches the true mercy necessary for redemption. He does not include “enable sin” as a work of mercy, nor does He teach “whatever sin you do, it is as if you did it for Me.” Even if one believes He sinned by teaching He is God, nonetheless, He does not say “Go and sin” but “Sin no more.”
Also according to Judaism, all of the mitzvah are temporary except for the Decalogue – which the Noahide Law summarizes – because all of the mitzvah are oriented to the preservation of life, including the Decalogue, but the Decalogue is the summary of the Natural Moral Law, so that, it is the only eternal mitzvah: a Jew may break a mitzvah to preserve another person’s life, but no Jew may break the Decalogue even to preserve another life.
In the case of Jewish persecution, Jews must obey the Decalogue unto death – otherwise, they lose their share in Paradise. (Whether they suffer forever or are annihilated after death is still debated) One of the ways Jews obey the Decalogue is how they prepare for martyrdom: forgiving their murderers and praying the Psalms. Another way is the burial of the dead.
There are three ways for Jews to be martyred: self-sacrifice for another’s life, self-sacrifice to preserve chastity or virginity, and self-sacrficie to protect the Jewish faith. Hence the red and white martyrdoms, and hence the Blood and Water from Christ’s Side.
Hence, too, Christ was obedient unto death, and He prayed the Psalms on the Cross. Hence, Christ did not break any of the mitzvah. Hence, Christ was buried, and He certainly buried Saint Joseph. He was truly a Bar Mitzvah – Son of the Law – as the Bar Abba – the Son of the Father, in the Flesh.
Wow, great article and great comment on the Jewish roots. God Bless you. I wish that all would speak with such clarity. We need it.