Responding to God's Merciful Love (Tuesday, Easter Octave, 2021)

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Psalm 33:5 says that “God’s MERCIFUL LOVE fills the earth”. LOVE and MERCY can’t be meaningfully separated from each other. When we talk about MERCY, we talk about LOVE because mercy, by its very nature, is an expression of love. MERCIFUL LOVE comes from someone who is ready to forgive without counting the cost; from someone who is ready to let go without considering the pains caused to him or her. And we must be sincere that such an attitude is very rare among humans. It is best attributable to God.


In Acts 2:36-41, Peter, recounting the resurrection story of Jesus and the wonders of God, told the Jews who gathered for a feast that the “God has made Jesus whom they crucified both the Lord and Christ”. When they heard this, they were cut to the heart (they had a sudden feeling of sorrow, remorse and desire for repentance and salvation).


A people who were headstrong and inattentive to Jesus’ call to repentance later on began to show signs of repentance, seeking God’s forgiveness and salvation at the preaching of Peter! How can we explain this? I think God’s MERCIFUL LOVE is the answer: the Jews felt it and responded to it by way of repentance and a strong yearning for forgiveness. 


Mary Magdalene was a sinner saved by Jesus. She was the woman from whom seven demons had gone out (Luke 8:2). It is even said that she was the woman who was caught in adultery. We know how Jesus handled her situation. But she was saved out of the MERCIFUL LOVE of God: a love that seeks to forgive and forget not minding the gravity of the offense. And what was the response of Mary Magdalene? She bore witness to the Risen Lord.


It is good that we recount the experience of the Jews and Mary Magdalene. It is also good for us to be reminded that as individuals, as groups, as a nation, etc, we have received an abundance of God’s merciful love at different times in different ways. We have failed God uncountable times, and His merciful love still remains. We are no better than the Jews who crucified Jesus; neither are we better than Mary Magdalene who was seen as a serial fornicator. But they received God’s mercy and love; and responded to it. HOW HAVE WE RESPONDED TO THE LIMITLESS MERCY AND LOVE OF GOD?


Prayer:

Jesus, thanks so much for your merciful love. Help me love You as I ought to, Amen!


Have a blessed day!



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