Feb. 16, 2009: Divine Mercy in the Book of Genesis
Several years ago I was asked by a mother to counsel her teenager who was expelled from his Catholic school for possessing drugs. She was distraught and wanted to set her son on a better path than what he's been. I tried to talk to him about God, and this young man replied, "There is too much inconsistencies in the bible for me to believe. Just look at how God is portrayed in the Old Testament versus the New Testament. God of the Old
Testament is a God of wrath, judgment, and punishment, while the God of the New Testament is a God of love." This struggle mirrors what was going on inside him. This young man broke school rules and disobeyed his parents, and for that, he rightly believed in the justice of his action--that the school, the parents, and God have right to punish him. But he's also saying don't start talking to me about how God is merciful or loving, because that's not the kind of God I'm experiencing right now.
For a teenager who is being punished, it is too easy for him to be self-absorbed and resent the school and his parents and to blame others for the wrong he himself is responsible for. The teenager does not see the pain and suffering that he has inflicted on his parents and the whole school community. Likewise, if we look at what Adam and Eve have done wrong only from their perspective, they seem like victims of harsh and severe God who demands complete obedience and perfection. But then, we will miss how much God's heart was pierced by Adam and Eve's act of pride and disobedience. We will miss how God's precious creatures abused their freedom by living a life totally contrary to God's call, and by justice the only answer was the Flood. Yet God's mercy was there when Adam and Eve were given a promise that of the seed of the woman would one day spring forth someone who would crush the evil serpent's head. In His mercy, God already planned for the Messiah, even at the very beginning. Likewise God in his mercy saved the family of Noah in the Ark, giving humanity a second chance. And it was God who heard and saw the affliction under slavery by the Egyptians, and in his mercy, he chose to deliver them.
In the early chapters of Genesis we do not have a very well developed conception of the Divine Mercy. It would be Jesus who will unlock the inner drama that God went through in Genesis, the drama that began by acts of pride and disobedience by His children. How many of our teenagers truly understand their parent's heart when they are grounded and punished? How many of our teenagers know how to say, 'I'm sorry,' and take the full restitution for what they have done? They will begin to understand this punishment as an act of mercy by their parents, when they become parents themselves. For us, the gravity of what God's children did in the Book of Genesis is understood when Jesus reveals the heart of God pierced by disobedience of His children.
For a teenager who is being punished, it is too easy for him to be self-absorbed and resent the school and his parents and to blame others for the wrong he himself is responsible for. The teenager does not see the pain and suffering that he has inflicted on his parents and the whole school community. Likewise, if we look at what Adam and Eve have done wrong only from their perspective, they seem like victims of harsh and severe God who demands complete obedience and perfection. But then, we will miss how much God's heart was pierced by Adam and Eve's act of pride and disobedience. We will miss how God's precious creatures abused their freedom by living a life totally contrary to God's call, and by justice the only answer was the Flood. Yet God's mercy was there when Adam and Eve were given a promise that of the seed of the woman would one day spring forth someone who would crush the evil serpent's head. In His mercy, God already planned for the Messiah, even at the very beginning. Likewise God in his mercy saved the family of Noah in the Ark, giving humanity a second chance. And it was God who heard and saw the affliction under slavery by the Egyptians, and in his mercy, he chose to deliver them.
In the early chapters of Genesis we do not have a very well developed conception of the Divine Mercy. It would be Jesus who will unlock the inner drama that God went through in Genesis, the drama that began by acts of pride and disobedience by His children. How many of our teenagers truly understand their parent's heart when they are grounded and punished? How many of our teenagers know how to say, 'I'm sorry,' and take the full restitution for what they have done? They will begin to understand this punishment as an act of mercy by their parents, when they become parents themselves. For us, the gravity of what God's children did in the Book of Genesis is understood when Jesus reveals the heart of God pierced by disobedience of His children.
Listen to what Our Lord tells St. Faustina:
My daughter, imagine that you are the sovereign of all the world and have the power to dispose of all things according to your good pleasure. You have the power to do all the good you want, and suddenly a little child knocks on your door, all trembling and in tears and, trusting in your kindness, asks for a piece of bread lest he die of starvation. What would you do for this child? Answer Me, my daughter. And I said, "Jesus, I would give the child all it asked and a thousand times more." And the Lord said to me, That is how I am treating your soul. .... Bring your ear close to My Heart, forget everything else, and meditate upon my wondrous mercy. My love will give you the strength and courage you need in these matters.(229)
[My daughter] proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy. (301)
