Posted on 04/11/2011 5:23:53 PM PDT by stfassisi
Orthodox/Latin Lenten ping.
“Mercy is opposed to justice. Justice is equality of the even scale, for it gives to each as he deserves... Mercy, on the other hand, is a sorrow and pity stirred up by goodness, and it compassionately inclines a man in the direction of all; it does not requite a man who is deserving of evil, and to him who is deserving of good it gives a double portion. If, therefore, it is evident that mercy belongs to the portion of righteousness, then justice belongs to the portion of wickedness. As grass and fire cannot coexist in one place, so justice and mercy cannot abide in one soul. As a grain of sand cannot counterbalance a great quantity of gold, so in comparison God’s use of justice cannot counterbalance His mercy. As a handful of sand thrown into the great sea, so are the sins of the flesh in comparison with the mind of God. And just as a strongly flowing spring is not obscured by a handful of dust, so the mercy of the Creator is not stemmed by the vices of His creatures.”
I have been thinking about this very thing all day long.
Thanks for posting.
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed”—Psalm 85:10
I don't think so. When God punishes the evil-doer, his motive is often mercy for the innocent who suffer under the evil.
Current-day political example: embarrasing Obama on a worldwide scale by exposing all the lying he's done would be a punishment for him, but it would be a mercy for those innocent who suffer because of his lies.
Satan was the first liar. He told Adam and Eve that they “would NOT surely die” if they disobeyed God Almighty.
He’s still propogating the same lie in a million different ways to trap the unwary and the simple.
Our only hope of salvation is Jesus Christ and belief in his sacrifice on our behalf. Anyone who doesn’t have that is doomed to be cast into Hell. The one and only reason that time hasn’t ended before now is that God is giving every human being(of whom He has foreknowledge) the chance to hear and heed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When that is done, God’s WRATH will indeed come for those who have held His Son of no account.
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."
1 John 4:7-8
“”God’s WRATH will indeed come “”
It’s not wrath in the way you think,dear friend.
God is not moved (”I the Lord do not change.”Malachi 3:6) and is unchanging Love,it’s God’s love that chastises and scourges or it would be man that has the power to move God,thus ,making man control God. God’s love does not change from Love to wrath
This is what the early Christians understood
From St. Isaac of Syria
... those who find themselves in hell will be chastised by the scourge of love. How cruel and bitter this torment of love will be! For those who understand that they have sinned against love, undergo no greater suffering than those produced by the most fearful tortures. The sorrow which takes hold of the heart, which has sinned against love, is more piercing than any other pain. It is not right to say that the sinners in hell are deprived of the love of God ... But love acts in two ways, as suffering of the reproved, and as joy in the blessed! (St. Isaac of Syria, Mystic Treatises)
Luke 17:27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
Better listen, friend. The wages of sin is Death.
When you think about it, all of Christianity is based on Mercy, not Justice. The very death on the cross is an act of Supreme Mercy as it is of Supreme Injustice. No one can say that it was just for Jesus to die!
The last person on earth who deserved to die (the most innocent of all) is killed, so that the guilty may live. (That's pretty much Lukan theology)
And then comes Anselm...
Interesting, I did not know about this Saint until you posted it. It seems that he was born in Qatar or Bahrain
Thanks! I bookmarked this for later reading.
I went to my first Akathist service ever (in a Greek church) last Friday, and am looking forward to Holy Week and Pascha!
The trouble is, too many (including the author here)read this passage and then go on to define God by their personal, worldly notions of love rather than defining love by what the Bible tells us of God.
The unrepentent sinner can not abide the fire of God’s love so for him it becomes an everlasting torment.
True. But I’ve also seen folks come up with some quite different definitions of love by their personal notions of what the Bible tells us of God.
:)
(Happy Lent to you, my Kolo)
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