The Continuing Mercy of God

The age-old argument between Protestants and Catholics: are we saved solely by the grace of God, or do we have to actively participate in it?  It is not an easy argument to reconcile, especially because, as usual, even the wrong side of the argument is observing and emphasizing some element of truth within the issue.  In this particular case, the Protestant side of the argument is attempting to highlight the incredible and continuing Mercy of God within the lives of the faithful even after the Paschal Sacrifice of Christ, all the while not fully realizing that this principle is already present within Catholic teaching.  The working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of man as the Paraclete, convincing the world of sin and reminding us how to recognize evil (and thereby recognize Christ) in indeed a continuing act of Mercy from God, without which we would be helplessly subject to the dictates of our sinfulness.

We recall that Mercy is an un-petitionable gift from God, that is, it is a free gift from one being to another which cannot be truly asked for, bargained for, or deserved.  It is an incredible act of Love and intervention originating completely outside of the recipient and born of the simultaneous helplessness of the recipient and the benevolence of the giver.  This is why the most appropriate prayer of the Church for Mercy, the only prayer possible for her, is a cry of supplication that God acknowledge her suffering and remember His covenant.  This itself is a momentous witness to the Mercy of God: that a Church which has very many proscribed prayers for almost every occasion within the life of man would recognize that there is no prayer outside of a cry of supplication possible to beg for the Mercy of God.

The Mercy of God has continued from the beginning of time as a response to the absurdity of Evil (which according to Augustine is a non-existence or absence, requiring a response rather than understanding), culminating in the Paschal mystery of Christ, just recently celebrated by Christians around the world.  Because evil can only be seen as an absence of God, it requires God Himself to re-insert Himself into that void which has rejected or expelled Him.  Evil as an absence of God was not eradicated from the world with the Sacrifice of Christ: the individual man is still capable of sin and of removing Himself from God, thereby increasing the effects of Sin upon his own intellect and causing him to further darken his own ability to recognize Sin and choose the good.  It is a continuing act of Mercy that God does not simply offer Salvation at one chronological time on the Cross and then leave His children to the whims of the world: Christ Ascended into Heaven specifically so that He could send the Holy Spirit to continue the work of Mercy in the world.  

Here at last we can see one strength in the Protestant understanding of the helplessness of man: that in fact we remain in the state of Sin without the constant, continuous and consistent working of God as an outpouring of Mercy upon our souls.  Mercy itself is a complete gift, which we are helpless to attain or even truly ask for.  It is only at the Mercy of God that we are saved.