Monday, March 02, 2015
2nd Week of Lent
1st Reading: Dn 9:4b–10
Gospel: Lk 6:36–38
Jesus said to his disciples, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Don’t be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over. For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)s
“One night in 1935, Fiorello H. La Guardia, mayor of New York, showed up in a night court in the poorest ward of the city. He dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench. One case involved an elderly woman who was caught stealing bread to feed her grandchildren. La Guardia said, “I’ve got to punish you ten dollars or ten days in jail.” As he spoke, he threw ten dollars into his own hat. He then fined everyone in the court fifty cents for living in a city where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. The hat of the mayor was passed around to collect the fine. The woman left the courtroom with her fine paid and an additional $47.50.” (Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker’s Quote Book, 1999).
The story shows that even where there is high demand for justice, one can still be merciful. Mercy is not a hindrance to the attainment of justice. On the contrary mercy fulfills it. Without mercy, the quest for justice becomes like a bottomless pit and generates more hatred than love. In an environment of hatred, justice comes as sweet revenge but does not heal.
This is best understood in the light of how God demanded justice from humanity. Humanity committed injustice through Adam and Eve. Justice was not attainable because none among created beings had the stature commensurate with the stature of God to do the restoration. It had to be a divine being appeasing a divine being. This problem was solved when God sent someone equal with him in dignity – Jesus Christ.
But the restoration performed by a divine being could hardly be attributed to the real offenders. Because the offenders were human beings, the restorer had to be a human being too. This problem was addressed when the Son of God took flesh and became a human being like us. In Jesus the great injustice done to God was paid off. But it was only possible because God had extended great mercy to us.
The same God who had extended great mercy to us even in his search for justice is asking us to be merciful to one another. He said: “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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