Lenten Weekday

THE LIGHT OF LENT

By Thomas Merton 2
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There is confidence everywhere in Lent, yet that does not mean unmixed
and untroubled security. The confidence of the Christian is always a confidence
in spite of darkness and risk, in the presence of peril, with every evidence of
possible disaster. “Let us amend for the better in those things in which we have
sinned through ignorance: lest suddenly overtaken by the day of death we seek
space for repentance and are not able to find it.” The last words are sobering
indeed. And note, it is the sins we have not been fully aware of that we must
amend. Once again, Lent is not just a time for squaring conscious accounts: but
for realizing what we had perhaps not seen before. The light of Lent is given us
to help us with this realization…

Nevertheless the liturgy of Lent is not focused on the sinfulness of the
penitent but on the mercy of God. The question of sinfulness is raised precisely
because this is a time of mercy, and the just do not need a Savior. Nowhere will
we find more tender expressions of the divine mercy than at this season. His
mercy is kind… How good are these words of Wisdom in a time when on all
sides the Lord is thought by mortals to be a God who hates. Those who deny
Him say they do so because evil in the world could be the work only of a God
that hated the world.

But even those who profess to love Him regard Him too often as a furious
Father, who seeks only to punish and revenge Himself for the evil that is done
“against Him” – One who cannot abide the slightest contradiction but will
immediately mark it down for retribution, and will not let a farthing of the debt
go unpaid.

This is not the God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself
“hides” our sins and gets them out of sight, like a mother making quick and
efficient repairs on the soiled face of a child just before entering a house where
he ought to appear clean. The words of the Lenten liturgies know Him only as
the “God who desires not the death of the sinner”, “who is moved by
humiliation and appeased by satisfaction”. He is everywhere shown to us as
“plenteous in mercy”.

And from the infinite treasure of His mercies He draws forth the gift of
compunction. This is a sorrow without servile fear, which is all the more deep
and tender as it receives pardon from the tranquil, calm love of the merciful
Lord… The God of Lent is like a calm sea of mercy. In Him there is no anger.
This “hiding” of God’s severity is not a subterfuge. It is a revelation of His true
nature. He is not severe, and it is not theologically accurate to say that He
becomes angry, that He is moved to hurt and to punish.

He is love. Love becomes severe only to those who make Him severe for
themselves. Love is hard only to those who refuse Him. It is not, and cannot be
Love’s will to be refused. Therefore it is not and cannot be Love’s will to be
severe and punish. But it is the very nature of Love that His absence is sorrow
and death and punishment. His severity flows not from His own nature but
from the fact of our refusal. Those who refuse Him are severe to themselves,
and immolate themselves to the blood-thirsty god of their own self-love. It is
from this idol that Love would deliver us. To such bitter servitude, Love would
never condemn us.

2 Seasons of Celebration – Farrar, Straus & Giroux – NY – 1965 – pg. 118.