UNDERSTANDING DIVINE MERCY

UNDERSTANDING DIVINE MERCY

Fr Luke A. Veronis

Yesterday we stood at the tomb of the Theotokos and found it empty. We sang of her falling asleep, and, in the same breath, of her being taken up. Because for her, death was not an ending but a passage into eternity. Today we come to church still carrying the fragrance of that feast and it’s not an accident that the Church hands us the Gospel of the merciful king and unmerciful servant on the very Sunday after we have celebrated the woman who is mercy's clearest icon.

Think about who the Virgin Mary is. Not only the Mother of God but also the Mother of all of us. Through her obedience, through the "yes" she gave in Nazareth, the Eternal Word of God took flesh and salvation entered the world. She acted as the conduit of our salvation. St. Ephrem the Syrian loved to call her the ground from which the fruit of life sprang up for a hungry world. And because she carried the mercy of God in her own body, she became, for the rest of us, an unceasing intercessor — the one who never stops pleading on our behalf with her maternal love. She is the one whose whole posture toward this fallen world is compassion and mercy.

We heard that compassion sung over and over these past two weeks in the Paraclesis Service. "To you we seek refuge, O pure one… Many are the temptations, and I have no other help than you." What struck me as we sang these hymns each day these past two weeks is that the Mother of God’s intercession is not a distant, formal thing. We feel the tenderness and love of her intercession. She is a mother who cannot rest while her children are in danger. She represents mercy in its most concrete form; not as a principle, but as a loving mother looking over us.

What an appropriate setting to hear today’s Gospel reading of the merciful King. We see a servant who owes his king ten thousand talents — a debt so enormous the ancient hearer would have laughed at the absurdity of the number. An impossible debt to repaid over numerous lifetimes. Yet the king, moved by his compassion and love, cancels the entire debt. Gone. Forgiven. Why? Simply because the King was merciful!

And then the forgiven servant walks out the door, finds a fellow servant who owes him a hundred denarii — a real debt of a few months wages — and shows him no mercy. Instead, he has the man thrown into prison until he can pay.

St. John Chrysostom expresses real exasperation with such a man. How can he walk away from the King’s unimaginable mercy and in the next moment choke his brother over pocket change. Chrysostom's answer is that the servant never allowed Divine Mercy to enter his heart. He accepted the cancelled debt but his arrogant and egocentric heart never expressed gratitude. And without gratitude his heart couldn’t understand divine mercy and love. The King’s actions stayed as a cold transaction. Mercy received as a simple transaction always curdles into resentment the moment someone owes us something.

This story summarizes our entire Christian life. We don’t forgive another in order to earn God's mercy. That is transactional love. We forgive the other because we have been wounded by God’s love. One who truly receives and understands mercy cannot but share the same mercy with others. Our heart overflows with this Spirit of God.

St. Isaac the Syrian says a merciful heart is one that burns with love for the whole of creation — for sinners, for enemies, even for the demons — not because our heart has resolved to be tolerant, but because our heart has been so overwhelmed by God's own compassion and love that we can do nothing else but share this mercy with all. Mercy withheld is a sign that mercy was never really understood.

This is the worst hypocrisy of our faith, when we joyously receive God’s gifts but don’t allow those gifts to transform us more and more into His likeness. With gratitude and thanksgiving we should become like the Merciful King in imitating His actions and sharing His Spirit with everyone we encounter.

So here lies the question I want each of us to wrestle with this morning. And having just honored the Virgin Mary yesterday, it's the question the Theotokos herself puts to us simply by being who she is. What does it look like for ordinary people like us to follow her example, because she is the first among all the saints to carry Christ within and to radiate His Spirit. In our own small way, how can we become intercessors on behalf of this fallen, sinful, confused, and broken world? We don’t want to imitate the unmerciful servant who focused on collecting our neighbor’s debts? Instead, we want to follow the King’s example and freely offer mercy and forgiveness to all.

So, let me offer a few practical suggestions that we can actually do this week. Name any debt we feel another owes us. Many of us, right now, are like the unmerciful servant who may feel another owes us something — maybe a family member, a former friend, a person at work. Before we demand repayment in whatever form, think of this other person and then think of the divine mercy God shows to us every day. “Lord have mercy” is the most frequent prayer in the life of a Christian. Accept the mercy of God and then allow this mercy to change your heart. Forgive the person whatever debt they owe you. Divine Mercy should never be a vague idea but it needs to become a concrete action offered to the person right in front of you.

If you have difficulty forgiving the debt and showing them mercy, try to pray for the person by name every day. The Theotokos intercedes for particular people, not only for humanity in general. Pray each day, by name, for the person who owes you something and bring them before the Merciful King. Daily intercession opens our heart to truly embrace Divine Mercy.

Remember that mercy will cost you something. The unforgiving servant's problem was that a hundred denarii felt like an expensive debt to him, even after he was forgiven the unimaginable debt of 10,000 talents. Yes, mercy will cost you something because Divine Love is sacrificial love.

The idea of Divine Mercy shouldn’t be complicated to understand. It's only difficult to practice because of our ego and pride. This is why the Church offers us the Theotokos as more than an model to admire from a distance. She is our Mother, a living intercessor, who we are called to imitate. The Lord doesn’t ask us to generate mercy out of nothing. We are asked to allow what we have already received to become a gift we freely offer to others.

So here is what I'm asking each of us to do, concretely, before next Sunday. Think of any debt that we feel someone may owe us. Think of a specific person who may owe us something and begin praying for that person every day. Ask the Theotokos to also pray for them, and for us, so that we may cultivate Divine Mercy in our heart. Ask the Panayia to help us the same way a child asks his mother for help when there’s a burden too heavy to carry alone. And then may this be the week when our understanding of the ten thousand talents finally becomes real to us, so that whatever hundred denarii our brother or sister owes us can finally, freely, be let go.