He intended to smite the Hebrews when they turned from His very Presence on Mount Sinai to worship a golden calf, but He relented when Moses pleaded with God to remember His mercy and His covenant promises.
Those promises find fulfillment in Christ, Who shows us the full extent of the Father's great Love for us. He seeks after us earnestly like the shepherd seeking a lost sheep and the woman seeking a lost coin, and even recklessly like the father welcoming the son who strayed. Now, when we repent, turning from sin back to God, He truly rejoices when we, who were lost, are now found, passing from death to life again.
Indeed, His capacity for compassion is immense, and someone like the older son in the parable can't accept that. Yet the father in the parable is compassionate even in pleading with the older son to embrace the reality of the younger brother's repentance.
God works mightily in repentance, as seen in the life of St. Paul, who turns from persecuting Christians to proclaiming the way of Christ. God chose St. Paul and transformed him by His mercy to be an instrument to advance His Heavenly Kingdom by proclamation of the Gospel message. And so He chooses all of us by bestowing His mercy on us so that we can His people walking in newness of Life, proclaiming this reality of justice, grace, and mercy by our lives.
As we think about the devastation that happens in the world, like the September 11 terrorist attacks 21 years ago, and other conflicts that occur today, we can open ourselves to the working of God's mercy in our lives to bring the world healing and new life.
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