“mercy is not strained”
“Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.” —Psalm 103:8
Abraham asked the Lord to spare the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if there were ten innocent people in those cities (Gn 18:32). Yet the cities were destroyed by fire and brimstone because there were not ten innocent people in them.
Here are some things to ponder from this passage:
- Do we ever think we have reached the limits of God’s mercy? In the light of the new covenant, we know the Lord’s mercy is limitless.
- Our sins are often worse than we think. We need God’s mercy much more than we realize.
- Do we intercede according to the limits of our own mercy? Do we ever think that if people are that evil, they deserve to die? Let us instead live by God’s standards of mercy.
Do we ever underestimate God’s mercy and humanity’s need for it? Let us learn from this. “Blest are they who show mercy; mercy shall be theirs” (Mt 5:7).
Prayer: Father, make me a messenger of Your unlimited mercy.
Promise: “A scribe approached Him and said, ‘Teacher, wherever You go I will come after You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have lairs, the birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’ ” —Mt 8:19-20
Praise: The first martyrs of Rome served as seeds which caused faith to grow in countless others. They came from all classes of society — soldiers, peasants, nobility, and merchants.
Reference: (The Good News is just a phone call away. Try our Bible telephone line, 513-823-3111, for a brief Scripture teaching on the daily Mass readings.)
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