Gospel of 1 March 2021
Monday of the Second Week of Lent
Luke 6:36-38
Grant pardon, and you will be pardoned
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.’
Reflexion
A superficial reading of the first reading and the gospel may result in a simplistic conclusion, which nonetheless is quite popular - on the one hand, we have the God of the Old Testament who is seen as a hard, exacting and judgmental deity who enjoys punishing us for our sins, and who can only be placated by the begging pleas of his devotees; on the other hand, we have the soft gentle compassionate God of the New Testament, a God who will not hold us accountable for our wrong-doings but who is quick to forgive and forget.
One can understand why such a dichotomy between the God of the Old Testament and that of the New, exist and is so popular, because it’s reassuring to those who believe in this view that we Christians, people of the New Testament, have the “better” God. But as popular as this view may be, it is not scriptural.
First, to create such a false distinction between the Old and the New Testament is an old heresy - Marcionism. It is an erroneous reading of scripture and ultimately provides us with a false lop-sided image of God. God is both just and merciful. He is both demanding as well as compassionate. When one aspect of God is obliterated and another aspect over-emphasised, we end up with another false deity which is no better than the golden calf set up by the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai as they awaited the return of Moses from the mountain top. It is so easy and convenient to make God in our own image and likeness rather than to allow God to be God.
And so, both readings provide us with a complementary and balanced view of God. Daniel in the first reading makes this humble prayer to God fully acknowledging the guilt of Israel and recognising that their predicament, being in exile, was due to their own fault and God could take no blame for this.
The prayer of Daniel rightly places the emphasis on the whole community's failure to love and obey the Lord, the God of Israel: 'we have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly, we have betrayed your commandments and your ordinances and turned away from them.' All have sinned, and no amount of mutual support and concerted effort will get us out of the mess we've made. We have all fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). As a result of this, none of us has the strength to break out of the cycle of sin, unless we look to the One who has broken into our lives to transform them from within.
And this is where God’s compassion comes into play. One has no need for God’s compassion and forgiveness if we have no sin or we live in denial of sin. Only a sinner who acknowledges his own depravity can fully appreciate God’s infinite and unfathomable compassion. The person with a lax conscience, who pays little attention to his own sinfulness and need for redemption, will also pay little attention to God’s mercy; in fact, he will treat the latter with disdain.
And therefore the call to be compassionate, to be non-judgmental, to be forgiving is not a call to not hold our brother or sister accountable and pretend that sin does not exist. Our compassion must be pegged to God’s compassion. We have to be compassionate as God is compassionate. And what is the ultimate sign of God’s compassion? Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, who died for our sins - He is the ultimate sign of God’s mercy and compassion.
As God showed compassion to us by sacrificing what was dearest to Him to redeem us, we too must be ready to sacrifice ourselves for the salvation of others, by calling them to humble repentance. For only in humble repentance, can they come to recognise the mercy and compassion of God, the God who alone can forgive their sins. For it is an act of mercy to admonish the sinner and to instruct the ignorant.