Vigils Reading

EVERYWHERE MERCY PRECEDES

From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny

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O happy the humility of those who repent; O blessed the hope of those

who confess. How mighty you are with the Almighty; how easily you conquer the

unconquerable; how quickly you turn the dreadful judge into a devoted father.

We have heard to our great edification of the prodigal son’s sorrowful journey,

tearful repentance and glorious reception. He was so gravely guilty and had not

yet confessed but only planned to; had not yet made satisfaction but only bent

his mind to it. Yet by merely intending to humble himself he immediately

obtained a pardon, which others seek for so long a time with such great desire,

beg for with such tears, strive for with such diligence. The thief on the cross was

absolved by a simple confession, the prodigal by only the will to confess.

“I said,” Scripture says, “I will confess my transgression to the Lord; and

you did forgive the guilt of my sin.” Everywhere mercy precedes. It had preceded

the will to confess by inspiring it; it preceded also the words of confession by

forgiving what was to be confessed. “When he was still far off,” we read, “his

father saw him and was moved with compassion, and running to meet him fell

upon his neck and kissed him.” These words seem to suggest that the father was

even more anxious o pardon his son than the son was to be pardoned. He

hastened to absolve the guilty one from what was tormenting his conscience, as

if the merciful father suffered more in his compassion for his miserable son than

the son did in his own miseries. We do not mean to attribute human feelings to

the unchangeable nature of God; we intend rather that our affection should be

softened and moved to love that supreme goodness by learning from

comparison with human feelings that he loves us more than we love him.

See how where sin abounded grace abounds still more. The guilty one

could scarcely hope for pardon; the judge, or rather not now the judge but the

advocate, heaps us grace… What a wealth of graciousness and sweetness, what

an abundance of most blessed joy, what torrents of most holy delight do they not

contain? “He fell upon his neck and kissed him.” When he thus showed his

affection for him, what did he do by his embrace and his kiss but take him to his

bosom and cast himself into his son’s bosom, breathe himself into him, in order

that by clinging to his father he might become one spirit with him, just as by

clinging to harlots he had been made one body with them? It was not enough for

that supreme mercy not to close the bowels of his compassion to the wretched.

He draws them into his very bowels and makes them his members. He could not

bind us to himself more closely, could not make us more intimate to himself

than by incorporating us into himself.

Both by charity and by ineffable power he unites us not only with the body

he has assumed but also with his very spirit. If such is the grace accorded to the

repentant what will be the glory of those who reign? If such are the consolations

of the wretched, what will be the joys of the blessed? And since he gives us so

much in advance while we are still on the way, what treasures is he not keeping

stored up for us when we arrive in our fatherland? Indeed, what has not entered

into the heart of man: that we should be like him and that God should be all in

all.