Restoration

We return and God restores. The restoration itself entails a dialogue, not merely a divine monologue. This marvelous process is mentally and spritually intoxicating to ponder at length, simply because it launches us into the fathomless realm of the infinite love of God. Granted, infinity is something that the human mind is incapable of encompassing. We can begin to apprehend it - that is perceive it and be aware of it - but we can't comprehend it. God's love is so big that he sent Jesus to suffer and die for murderers, thieves, prostitutes, drug traffickers, adulterers, perverts, drunks, tyrants - and me.

The reason why it's hard for us to appreciate fully God's merciful love is that we can't fathom the depth of that kind of love. It's simply beyond us - beyond our capacity as humans - to love so unconditionally and so universally. God hates sin with a hatred that we can't imagine, but he profoundly loves the person who commits the sin. The world's worst sinner is precious to God, who lovingly desires that he be saved. Paul says in Romans 11:28: "As regards the gospel they are enemies of God...but as regards election [eligibiity for salvation] they are beloved." Thus love and hate comprise a double-edged sword that is sheathed in the truism traditionally attributed to Saint Augustine, "God hates the sin but loves the sinner." 

On his part God is yearning with his merciful love to save the sinner who is still eligible to be saved. Such a one is like the starving person who is still able to eat food that is offered to him. We think of the "good thief," known now as Dismas, "the thief who stole heaven" while dying on Calvary. Jesus promised him that he would be in paradise with him that very day, the first Good Friday.

God's mercy extends to all except those who refuse it, as did the "other thief" next to Jesus on the cross - the apparently obdurate one, traditionally  known as Gestas. The only "unforgivable" persons are the reprobates who freely refuse God's forgiveness. Some even respond to God's offer of mercy by redoubling rather than reversing their malevolence toward him. The infamous King Ahaz "in the time of his distress...became yet more faithless to the Lord" (2 Chronicles 28:22). And before that the wicked Amaziah refused to listen to God's prophet and so was doomed to destruction (see 25:14-16). Such refusals become irrevocable when a soul enters hell. 

Let's take a more discriminating look at the two-edged sword of love and hate. "Love the sinner, hate the sin" has become a veritable shibboleth in moral theology. God loves the mafioso hit man, the drug trafficker, the genocidal tyrant and the holocaust executioner just as much as he loves the saintly contemplative nun wrapped in prayer - in the quantitative sense, that is. He loves both saint and sinner infinitely and, in that measure, equally.

However, his infinite love differs in each person by reason of the amount of grace conferred and also in the quality (or degree) of intimacy that is the expression of his love. Thus God's equally infinite love for both saint and sinner is differently mirrored in each person, according to the varying degrees of each person's acquiescence to God's will. When thus differentiated, we can understand how, "his mercy is for those who fear [reverence] him" (Luke 1:50).

The nineteenth-century preacher of fame Henry Ward Beecher wrote: "There is dew in one flower and not another, because one opens its cup and takes it in, while the other closes itself....God rains his goodness and mercy as widespread as the dew, and if we lack them, it is because we will not open our hearts to receive them."1

1 Henry Ward Beecher, quoted at yah2004.tripod.com

This excerpt is from the book The Awesome Mercy of God, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Books. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.