God Thinks Big – He Made Elephants, Didn't He?

There’s an oft-told anecdote about the great luminary of theological insight, Saint Augustine. One day, walking along the seashore, pondering the greatness of God and his boundless goodness and mercy, he came upon a tine child at the water’s edge, repeatedly dipping a spoon into the water and emptying it into a pail. 

“Why are you doing that?” asked Augustine.

The child answered that he was trying to see if he could empty the entire ocean into the pail. Augustine patiently explained that it would be an impossible task. The child then revealed that he was an angel in human form, sent by God to teach the saint that it would be even more futile for any created mind to try to engulf the infinite ocean of God’s goodness and mercy. With that the child vanished, leaving the great theologian profoundly humbled and awestruck.

The Curé of Ars, St John Vianney, who spent as much as sixteen hours a day in the confessional, preached that all the sins ever committed were like one tiny grain of sand in comparison to the huge mountain of God’s mercy. If that truth were universally acknowledged, there would be no case of despair in all of human history, nor of shame-fostered depression or suicide, including that of Judas.

And yet, even in suicide and other tragedies reported in the news every day, the Lord doesn’t withdraw this offer of mercy up to the last second of life  -  as long as there is a remote possibility of a sinful person’s accepting it. After a neighbor’s suicide Augustine speculated, “The mercy of God may be found between the bridge and the stream.” 1

Of course, to depend on such last-second words, entailing a most serious risk of eternal damnation. Augustine also said: “There is one case of deathbed repentance recorded, that of the penitent thief, that none should despair; and only one that none should presume.” 2

Jeremy Taylor underscored this risk in his elegiac way with words: “Mercy is like the rainbow, which God hath set in the clouds; it never shines after it is night. If we refuse mercy here, we shall have justice in eternity.” 3

The Scriptures reiterate the importance of prompt responses to grace. The author of Hebrews, quoting Psalm 95, cites this key teaching three times; “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works’” (Hebrews 3:7-9; see also 3:15; 4:7).

It must be kept in mind that any repentance that is merely a partial remorse for sin is not authentic repentance and will not draw down the fullness of God’s merciful forgiveness. Judas confessed his treason but not his thievery and hypocrisy; his “repentance” was simply an anguished and despairing regret. If his repentance had been complete and sincere, it would have embraced all of his iniquity, and a Niagara Falls of God’s mercy would have cleansed his soul. By contrast, when David was overcome by one sin, he renewed his repentance for all his sins in his prayer in Psalm 51: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” (verse 2).

God’s triumphant remedy for sin-diseased souls involves radical surgery, not just a Band-Aid patch. When the Lord restores a soul,  he wants to perform a complete overhaul. So if you have a “spiritual paralysis” in one hand, don’t ask him to heal it while you hold out your other hand to the devil.

I like the quaint proverb, “Those who think small race their pet slugs on a one-yard track.” Shortsighted souls think small; they are seldom heaven-focused in their worldview. They look at life through a microscope rather than a telescope. Such narrow-minded, self-focused people are more concerned about their dieting hardships than about the fact that every two seconds a person somewhere dies of starvation and that three-fourths of those starving are children.

But God thinks big. He made elephants didn’t he?

One of the least recognized advantages of trials and temptations is the plan of God to promote a broader work of grace in the soul. A homeowner will have the entire roof checked when even one leak is found. A homemaker will wash not just a stained section of a garment but the entire garment. So God is concerned for our entire spiritual welfare, not just a part of it. Hence, refusing to be open to this broad action of grace is to frustrate God’s magnanimous plan for us, in our personal life and in our relationships with others.

The Almighty has designed his mercy to flow to us, his creatures, limitlessly in “quantity” and also in duration. Quantitatively it is inestimable, beyond words: “Who can measure his majestic power? And who can fully recount his mercies?” (Sirach 18:5). In duration it is simply eternal – “from everlasting to everlasting,” without beginning and without end: “the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end” (Lamentations 3:22).

Though limitless in itself, God’s mercy can be received expansively in some and truncated in others, just as various-sized containers can collect various amounts of rain-water. We probably know people who wallow in the disappointment of unanswered prayers, which often leads to a subtly diminished faith. Such people may then slip into the conviction that God isn’t really all that eager to help them. They may begin to think that they have a “right” to what they ask for. Their prayers may become petulant, like the pleading of a recalcitrant and demanding child who whines for every fancied toy on the store shelves.

The prayer of Daniel provides a prototype of the best way to draw down the fullest outpouring of Divine Mercy: “We do not present our supplication….on, the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of your great mercies” (Daniel 9:18). The recognition of infinite mercy on God’s part and of our humble reliance on that – mercy encompasses the very essence of petition prayer – and also the quintessence of Christian spirituality.

1  Saint Augustine, Confessions, quoted in 12,000 Religious Quotations, p. 301. 

2  Saint Augustine, Confessions, quoted in 12,000 Religious Quotations, p. 375. 

3  Jeremy Taylor, quoted in 12,000 Religious Quotations, p. 302.

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.