A Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

+ Often mercy is thought of as the free relief of somebody from suffering. Within this school of thought God’s infinite mercy is presented as an excuse for not correcting our vices and sins. From such a conception of mercy it is only a short step to the heresy of universal salvation. How is it possible that God would condemn anybody to eternal suffering in hell if He were merciful and overlooks our vices? Evidently this is not how God’s mercy operates.

In the collect we have just begged God to direct our hearts through the working His mercy under the realisation that only through His free gift to us can we be pleasing to Him. Fundamentally this is still a free gift which removes guilt, but it is no longer something superficial but something substantial that comes from the source. Such a removal is rather a correction so that we can turn back from our sin and do good, yet it requires that we actually do good. Unless the good flows from God’s grace, unless the vices are heartily combatted with grace, we show ourselves to be a despiser of God’s mercy which, at our particular judgement, is worse than to have never received it. Even if our battle against our vices will rarely gain an immediate or even a quick victory.

Mercy flows from justice. God knows that we can never be found just by our own merits, yet He wants us to have the opportunity to be justified. Destroying the bonds of our sin is the primary reason for which God became man and subjected Himself to the most brutal of all deaths. Only with the price of original sin paid on the cross and washed from the individual away through baptism can justice be maintained whilst mercy is offered. Only through our cooperating in that self-sacrifice of Christ on calvary can we receive that mercy offered. Through that mercy can we be justified and worthy in God’s sight.

The September Ember-tide Masses fulfil the command to Moses that Israel shall always keep a week in this month to recall the time spent wondering in the wilderness. In those forty years Israel persisted in sinning against God, of despairing of His mercy, despite having just witnessed the great wonders He had worked in rescuing them from Egypt. On Ember Saturday the epistle placed together the ancient tabernacle in the wilderness, with the eternal sacrifice of Christ. In so doing the apostle teaches of the greater gift that we have been given than that of the Israelites when they were led out of Egypt. This in turn indicates the vastly greater necessity, and dignity, of these days of fasting and atonement. The prophecies had earlier spoken of the joy and gladness which must accompany this time, a joy in the recollection of that which we have been drawn out and the gladness of being free from the slavery to sin symbolised in the figure of Egypt. The wandering in the desert images that conversion of life which is required of all of us. The desert is the middle ground where, no longer being trapped by vice, we have not yet nonetheless attained virtue. We have only encountered God in hope of eternity.

By conversion of life do we accept that mercy which is shown to us. We can do nothing else in a genuine response to the grace of God. There is always more that we can do to be more pleasing, humbler, and filled with good works in the sight of God. Even in the frustration of not being able to recognise any progress in virtue we must persevere to the struggle of amending our life to the glory of God. But we can never forget the second half of today’s collect as well. Without God we are unable to please Him. Unless we hold fast to Him all our efforts are of no avail.
God’s mercy operating in this manner is not a mere overlooking or excusing of vices but an opportunity, even a demand, to correct them and set the evil habits aside. Whilst the sacrament of confession is essential for this task, it cannot be used to overlook the need for change. This is the reason the Church gives us the brief examination of conscience in compline each day. Let us ever hold fast to the ancient ecclesial tradition which is given us to foster our continual progress towards God in prayer fasting and good works. +