The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!” The Lord is good to those who depend on Him, to those who search for Him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-26
“It is only the infinite mercy and love of God that has prevented us from tearing ourselves to pieces and destroying His entire creation long ago. People seem to think that it is in some way a proof that no merciful God exists, if we have so many wars. On the contrary, consider how in spite of centuries of sin and greed and lust and cruelty and hatred and avarice and oppression and injustice, spawned and bred by the free wills of men, the human race can still recover, each time, and can still produce man and women who overcome evil with good, hatred with love, greed with charity, lust and cruelty with sanctity. How could all this be possible without the merciful love of God, pouring out His grace upon us? Can there be any doubt where wars come from and where peace comes from, when the children of this world, excluding God from their peace conferences, only manage to bring about greater and greater wars the more they talk about peace?
We only have to open our eyes and look about us to see what our sins are doing to the world, and have done. But we cannot see. We are the ones to whom it is said by the prophets of God: “Hearing hear, and understand not; and see the vision, and know it not” [Isaiah 6:9]. There is not a flower that opens, not a seed that falls to the ground, and not an ear of wheat that nods on the end of its stalk in the wind that does not preach and proclaim the greatness and the mercy of God to the whole world. There is not an act of kindness or generosity, not an act of sacrifice done, or a word of peace and gentleness spoke, not a child’s prayer uttered, that does not sing hymns to God before His throne, and in the eyes of men, and before their faces…We refuse to hear the million different voices through which God speaks to us, and every refusal hardens us more and more against His grace — and yet He continues to speak to us: and we say He is without mercy!”
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) in The Seven Storey Mountain (New York: Image Books, 1970) 161-162. This is an extraordinary autobiography and spiritual classic of the last century.
The world does not believe a merciful God exists because of the pervasive evil and darkness everywhere. My prayer today is that our lives send a different message. Our generosity must proclaim that there is a God and He has so lavished His grace, mercy, love, and goodness on us that we cannot help but to extend it to others in abundance. God is not without mercy. His mercies never cease but are new every morning!