The measure with which you measure... (Mon of Lent 2)

Monday of the Second Week of Lent

Daniel 9:4-10  ;  Ps 79  ;  Luke 6:36-38

ALMIGHTY God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

 

Mt Sinai

Our Lord calls His disciples to imitate God interpreting a command of the Torah (Law of Moses):

Be holy for I, the LORD your God, am holy… (Lev 19:2)

This imitation of holiness requires us, amongst other things, to be merciful just as God the Father is merciful.

On Mt Sinai the LORD proclaimed Himself to Moses as:

The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

And this is echoed in the psalm 86:

But thou, O Lord God, art full of compassion and mercy : long-suffering, plenteous in goodness and truth.

This understanding of holiness as being merciful as God the Father is merciful, is in contrast with the Pharisees understanding of holiness. For the Pharisees holiness meant separation from anything that could make one unclean. The word ‘pharisee’ comes from the Hebrew meaning ‘separatists’. This is what lead Jesus into such conflict with them over such things as table fellowship with public sinners. Holiness for our Lord means that being merciful we lead sinners back to God, not shun them.

Our Lord also gives us concrete consequences for His disciples. We are to stop judging, stop condemning and forgive. And the result of this is that the disciple will not be judged, not be condemned and be forgiven – by God!

Our Lord summarises His teaching with a corollary of the Golden Rule:

The measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.

To what extent do I live out this call to mercy, and what can I improve in my life?

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Fr Ian is a catholic priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England. He is by papal dispensation married. He lives in a former convent with his wife and children in Devon, near the sea.