Divine correction is, above all, an act of mercy, because in this way God guides the steps of His children to cross the narrow gate.
Newsdesk (27/08/2025 9:12, Gaudium Press)The idea that lingers in the minds of many is that punishment and mercy are incompatible with each other. However, the Liturgy of the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time marks how these two elements are both indispensable for those who consider themselves children of God.
‘We ate and drank with you…’
“Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.” (Lk 13:24).
Sunday’s readings serve very well to elucidate a misconception of the condition of being a child of God, which can be summed up in this phrase from the Gospel: ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ (Lk 13:26).
In fact, we see that the tendency to separate mercy from justice (represented by correction) is an age-old problem, already warned about in the Letter to the Hebrews, in which the Apostle shows that rebuke is actually a sign of divine affection, ‘for the Lord reproves the one he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights’ (Pr 3:11). In this way, God gives us the opportunity to humble ourselves and realize how high the position is to which He calls us, in comparison to our fallen state due to Original Sin. Furthermore, correction can manifest itself in many ways, such as an illness, or some unexpected failure, even a priest’s sermon that urges us to change our lives.
Thus, as we pray in the penitential rite of the Mass, we need to recognize that we are in need of the Father’s mercy, because God’s rebuke is not an outburst of anger, but rather a desire to cleanse the defects of our soul, as a loving Father, eager to make us worthy of the heavenly inheritance, which is eternal salvation.
Also, through correction, we gradually become like ‘purified vessels’ — not only on the outside, but also on the inside — to bring our ‘offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord’ (Is 66:20). In other words, our prayers become more pleasing to God because, if no father gives a stone to his son who asks him for bread, how much more will God not fail to answer his son who comes to him, beats his breast and says: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you’ (Lk 15:21). So being a child of God also requires accepting His corrections and not just ‘eating and drinking,’ as the Prodigal Son did.
However, even when rebuke seems unjust, it aims at ‘the peaceful fruit of righteousness’ (Heb 12:11). The greatest example of this was Our Lord Jesus Christ who, although He was the Innocent One par excellence, received the most infamous of tortures as punishment for crimes He did not commit. With this, the Saviour won for us the fruit of righteousness and peace that is harvested from the tree of the Cross at the moment when, for example, one receives Sacramental Absolution and regains the status of children of God, lost through sin. Unfortunately, however, such sublime sonship is abandoned by many who are more interested in eating ‘the acorns of pigs’.
We can say that this is one aspect of the narrow gate through which the true children of God must pass.
Mary, Most Holy, Mother of Mercy
But considerations about God’s justice should not afflict us, for we must not forget that, as if a Father of infinite goodness were not enough, we have also been given a most loving Mother: Our Lady, who undoubtedly cares more about our salvation than we do ourselves.
It is no wonder that She is called ‘Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted’ because all who feel oppressed by the weight of their own faults can turn to Her. Therefore, we should not be afraid if the magnitude of our faults prevents us from passing through the narrow gate, but we should pray with confidence: ‘Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy…’, certain that through Her intercession, we will attain eternal salvation.
By Vinícius Mendes
The Post Rebuke and Mercy: Two Reflections of God’s Love first appeared on Gaudium Press.
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
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