Theme: Be Merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful
Scripture Reading: Dan. 9:4-10; Ps. 78:8-9,11, 13; Lk. 6:36-38
We read in the first reading a beautiful prayer of Daniel. He praises God for his goodness and and greatness. He finds God who had made covenant with the human race is the only partner in the covenant who is faithful to His promises. He has dealt with the people with great fairness, mercy, kindness and integrity. God has shown mercy and pardon to the people even though they have been unfaithful in the covenant. Inspite of having seen the goodness of God, we have sinned against God. We have done wrong. We have acted wickedly. We have betrayed God. We have not kept His commandments and ordinances. We have turned away from him. We not listened to him and his prophets. Thus, we have sinned against God. Daniel made a confession of sins before the Lord. He recognized that due to our sinfulness we deserved condemnation and eternal damnation. Yet God has spared us because He is merciful and compassion. He forgives us and rescues us. This was also prayed by the Psalmist today. He too recognizes our human sinfulness and therefore asked God not to treat us according to out sins.
If Daniel and the Psalmist prayed today for mercy and compassion, asked God to forgive us from our sins then we too are called to treat others in the same manner. St. John Paul II called the Gospel of Luke as the Gospel of mercy. He gives us very inspiring quote of Jesus today, “Be merciful as your Father is merciful”. Our Heavenly Father does not judge us even though we have sinned against us. He does not condemned us even though we have not kept His commandments. He forgives all our sins even though we have been repeating the same.
If God is so merciful to us then we are also called to do the same with others. We are called to be merciful to others. If we are able to forgive others in a manner that God forgives us then we will be treated in same way. Jesus gives parable of mercy in the Gospel of Mathew. The servant was shown mercy by the king. But the same servant did not show mercy to his own fellow servant. The king ordered him to be put into jail until he should pay back all he owed. (Mt. 18:21-35). Luke gives a parable of prodigal son to depict the mercy of Father. All the synoptic Gospels show that Jesus taught us to be merciful in the Lord’s Father’. He says us, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Jesus repeatedly told us to be merciful. It is one of the main teachings of Jesus. It secures our final destination i.e. heaven.
One of the things, we ask God during this season of lent is to forgive our sins. We are told that we will be forgiven on the basis of how we have forgiven others. Let us therefore imitate God in his mercifulness and find reward in heaven.
