Lent 2, Monday – Dn 9:4-10; Ps 78:8-9,11,13; Luke 6:36-38

A call and a response. Those who sinned, did wrong, acted wickedly – and the One who is merciful. Those who have betrayed – and the One who forgives.

Somehow our happiness is in the hand held out to us – it’s enough to open the mouth to obtain the Food for eternity, enough to genuflect to experience the joy of a clean conscience. Only it’s so hard sometimes to believe that the answer to our evil is mercy. That the measure of good, pressed down, shaken together and running over, God wants to pour into our lap. It’s only when we realise our own sin, that we feel regret on our faces. It’s just then when we cry out to God, humbled by our own weakness, that He answers.

The one who gives, gives from that which was received from the Father: freedom, forgiveness, life. “Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate” and then “the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back”. God’s mercy is expressed in His fatherly love. There is no other model of Mercy. No person will ever be as God. Every “child” can measure out to others what they have received from the Father. And either that measure will be the Father’s Mercy, or it will be an unmerciful measure.