Father

Praise God for he is a God of Mercy and a God of Justice.

You know, I sometimes joke that last year we had a Year of Mercy that the following year, should have been a Year of Justice. Mercy and Justice are two sides of the same coin in God. And that’s great news!

I think sometimes it’s hard to relate to a God of Justice because, I don’t know about you, but when I think of a just God, I think of a cold and unforgiving God. A God that is out there somewhere sitting on some mighty chair, making up rules and giving out judgments. I mean that’s what I use to think about God and in some sense, that’s what I use to think about the Church herself. So instead, so often we prefer to talk about a God of Mercy, and just ignore his Justice.

In the first reading today, we hear from the book of Wisdom. The author of Wisdom praises God as a just God whose might is the source of justice and who judges “with clemency.” And more importantly God has given his children “good ground for hope that [He] would permit repentance for their sins.” God has given his children “good ground for hope.”

We cannot understand a just God unless we realize that we are God’s children. And more importantly God is our Father, a good Father. God is not just some God sitting out there making up rules and giving out judgments, but he is a God that is right here with us, loving us.

So often we see God acting like a government that makes up rules for his own purpose that we have to follow, rather than seeing God as a Father who says to his child, “play on the driveway but don’t walk out into the streets where you’ll get hurt.” God makes rules and judgments because he loves you. He is a good Father who loves us. That’s the good news!

Why? Because when I look into my heart, all I see are my weaknesses. I look into my heart and find that I am still so weak, I still have such brokenness, I’m so wounded.

If God is just some God sitting out there making up rules and judgements, then my weakness should cause me to fear God. But… but if he is a good Father who loves us with justice and mercy, then my weakness, my wounds should cause me to run to God the Father.

St. Therese of Lisieux understood this deeply. She writes:

Though one must indeed be pure before appearing in the sight of the All-Holy God, still I know that He is infinitely just, and the very justice which terrifies so many souls is the source of all my confidence and joy… Indeed, I hope as much from the justice of God as from His mercy.

Then when looking into her own heart she wrote:

I am no longer surprised by anything, I am not sorry to see that I am weakness itself. On the contrary, I glory in it, and I expect to discover new imperfections in myself every day…

Oh how happy I am to see myself as imperfect and so much in need of God’s mercy at the moment of death!

St. Therese knew that God was a loving Father. Whenever she would fall into some sin, she would feel blessed because that means she now could run to the Father and ask for even more of His mercy and grace! That’s how much she trusted the Father’s love!

Brothers and sisters, we have a Father whom we can run to even in our sinfulness…

Many of us tend to fall into the same sin over and over and over again. And probably get discouraged at having to go back to confession with the same sins. Or perhaps you’re so discouraged that you decided there’s no point.

There’s a story of a man who struggled with an addiction and time and time again he would fall back into the addiction that he promised himself he stopped. Until one day he told the priest, “You know, I’ve lost all confidence in myself.” The wise priest responded, “That’s amazing!”… “That’s amazing! Because now that you have no confidence in yourself, you can place that confidence in God.”

Our good Father looks at us in with justice and sees our sins and he says to us that is wrong. That sin is hurting you and others. It’s destroying your life. His heart aches seeing you hurting, trapped in sin. In his mercy, he wants you to turn to him so that he can give you a life free of this hurt, free of this sin.

Friends… I know what many of you are struggling with. God knows what many of you are struggling with. He knows how many times you have fallen into the same sin. And today I got a message for you: God the Father knows what you’ve done… and He still loves you! He is madly in love with you. And he wants to help you. He wants to heal you. He wants to free you of this.

There are many people who’ve been right where you are now, and have been healed by Christ. And the Father offers his mercy always, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. God wants to take your sin away from you. In your weakness, in your addiction, in your sin… God, the Father, comes to you and he wants to free you.

Do not be afraid, do not be ashamed, our God is a good good Father, run to him in your weakness and He will be your strength.