What is the essence of mercy? Or what is Infinite-Mercy? Sometimes when we meditate on how people express mercy, particularly loving parents; it may give us a small inkling into this mystery. Wrath is also an interesting concept that is often confused with the human emotions of rage and anger. While anger can be a positive force in ones life, it is often expressed in ways that are best described as revengeful. Rage, well it is anger all grown up in a way that can only be described as psychotic, though thankfully short lived in most instances.
In talking to parents who are struggling with a child who is suffering and in deep trouble, it is then that mercy can be seen at work. There is nothing sentimental when it comes to parental care of their children. If a child is sick, there is only love and concern for the loved one, yet there is wrath towards the disease and anything that needs to be done to save their child will be acted upon. Even if this causes the child more suffering…chemo and surgery comes to mind. The child if too young to understand will fight what the parents are trying to do, yet parental love demands that it be done, no matter the cost to them. Such is the nature of love. In this understanding of ‘parental wrath’…. rage and out of control anger have no place. For if present it ceases to become life giving and only becomes controlling and destructive. Though in human’s, control, anger and rage can enter the picture. Hence I believe our confusion over terms.
Those who have loved ones who are addicts likewise express wrath. Yet when looked at closely it is directed at the addiction. At what endangers the life and well being of the one afflicted. So mercy is powerful and not something sentimental. All one has to do is to be present at an intervention, or the one receiving it. It is a painful experience for all involved. In fact the suffering can be greater for those who are giving the intervention, because of their love and concern. In this process strong words are used, anger expressed, yet only in the context of helping the addict. If rage and the desire for revenge are present, then the process will not work. Why, because in that there is no mercy.
So what is the mercy of God? Christ on the Cross, what does that show us about mercy? This is not a pleasant mystery to dwell upon, at least for me, for I never really get it. Or if I think I do, it dissipates just as I begin to contemplate what I grasped. So when Christ made the prayer “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” what is going on? If sin is a form of spiritual cancer, what then is the mercy of God? What did Christ Jesus experience on the Cross? Was God’s wrath, the response of infinite love and purity to all the harm that seeks to destroy the beloved? What does it mean the statement “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God”? Does it mean the actual experience of God’s mercy? The expression of wrath, is about truth, love, concern and the willingness to experience pain and suffering for the one being challenged. It is not based on self righteousness but on the understanding of the human situation and what is needed in order to bring balance and healing to the one suffering. Without trying to control or overwhelm another which for humans can be a challenge….it is for me…being human and all.
In our journey towards God, He does not spare us from self-knowledge, nor from the suffering and anguish that can cause us. It is an essential part of our journey to become ever more human. The paradox is this, the deeper we know ourselves the more we can show actual mercy towards others as well as experience it. We can speak the truth (when we are called to) without anger or rancor or the desire to control. When I am confronted, even in a gentle manner, if I am off center or blind to what is being said to me, I can experience that as anger, or rejection, when in fact it is a call to grow closer to the one who challenges me, to deepen my trust and by doing that, I can experience the shame or embarrassment that this deeper understanding of myself, without fear.
The deepest expression can be understood by the experience of the ‘Life-Review’, that many go through when they have a Near-Death-Experience. The experience of having to go through ones life and to experience all that has been done to others, as if it has been done to oneself ,can be experienced as deeply painful….this is wrath….yet without exception all those going through this experience feel only love from the Light that surrounds them. So mercy demands that we understand and experience all that we have done. We are forgiven, yet the healing that is needed from the cancer of sin, of our free choices need to be experienced. Just as Christ on the Cross experienced all that we have done to ourselves and others, that where self destructive for all involved. It is all gift, grace, unearned, given freely to all. Our final free response comes only from us.
After thinking about this, I still don’t get it, for who can understand Infinite Love, Mercy and yes the Wrath directed towards the cancer of sin? I do wish we had another word besides wrath, but we don’t. Yet we can strive to outgrow what is popularly believed about this important concept.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
