The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. (Luke 15:2)

God willingly and readily forgives sinners. We see in the gospel today how affectionate and merciful our Divine Savior is.

God first forgives. To forgive means to set aside all ill-will and aversion towards those who offend us and to wish them well from the heart. We hardly ever forgive perfectly. Though we say I forgive him who offended me, yet, there often remains in us a certain coldness; we do not love him as before. Try as hard as we may to wish him well a certain bitterness is aroused and it costs a good deal of violence always to suppress these emotions and entirely to destroy them. God on the other hand forgives perfectly. Once God has forgiven us He treats us as affectionately as if we had always been His most obedient children; His heart even expands, so to speak, and He loves us in a higher degree than many of those who have never grievously offended Him. Mary Magdalen and St. Peter offer us examples of this forgiveness and expanded love.

God forgives willingly while we must be reminded of our duty and the truths of the Faith, Heaven and Hell, etc. He is ever ready to receive a repentant sinner. He even waits with desire for the moment when they return to Him. "I have spread forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving people, who walk in a way that is not good." (Is. 65: 2) "Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened and I will refresh you." (Matt. 11:28) St. Augustine says: "God is more ready to impart forgiveness to the sinner than the sinner is to receive it."

The parables in today's gospel coupled with these examples and many others throughout the scriptures should encourage us like the prodigal son to return to Him full of humility, contrition, and confidence. How can we continue to offend God, who means so well with us, who is daily and hourly prepared to forgive us and to treat us as His beloved children?

Another mark of His mercy is that He forgives all sinners. There is no sinner, no matter how guilty, that can not be forgiven. Murderers, robbers, highwaymen, thieves, blasphemers, perjurers, adulterers, in a word all sinners can find mercy with God. There is no number of sins that could consume the fountain of His mercy. If a man had the sins of the entire world upon his conscience, he need not despair of his salvation, but can hope for pardon. "If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow, and if they be red as crimson, they shallbe white as wool." (Is. 1:18) St. Cyprian says: "Neither the greatness of the crimes, nor the shortness of life yet remaining, nor the extreme necessity of the last hour excludes from the friendship of God. His infinite love and mercy embrace all that return to Him." The Samaritan woman, the adulteress, the thief on the cross had grievously sinned, but they also found grace. We just need open the lives of the saints and read of terrible sinners who became saints like, Margaret of Cortona, or Mary of Egypt.

But, to receive this mercy of God upon ourselves we must truly repent, and we must repent in time. If the sinner repents, God will be merciful to him and forgive him his sins, but if, on the contrary, the sinner perseveres in sin, he will perish. "Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish" The mercy of God then does not cinsist in this, that He forgives all sinners indiscriminately, but only those who truly repent. Think of Cain, of the people in the time of Noe, of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha, of the traitor Judas, of the obstinate Jews at Jerusalem; they all perished because they did no penance. We must avoid the damnable vice of presumption, believing that we do not need to repent and that God will forgive us anyway.

None of us knows how much time we have left on this earth, but it is certain that we must repent before we leave this world. Once we pass from time into eternity repentance will be in vain. Our lot will be eternally sealed. God who has promised pardon to the repentant sinner has not promised him tomorrow. We must take advantage of the present moment because this is all that we have. Let us repent truly and without delay. Let us make good use of the time of grace and work out our salvation without delay, that we may escape the threatening perdition and be saved.

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