The Wideness in God's Mercy

God does not frown or sleep.

The former thought came to mind in pondering "What Wondrous Love Is This," a North American folk hymn. Its second stanza, which seems to present a perfect meditation for our Lenten discipline, reads:

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,

when I was sinking down, sinking down,

when I was sinking down beneath God's righteous frown,

Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul,

Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.

And the latter thought emerged in pondering the words of final address by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square  on February 27, when he told the crowd: "There were moments of joy and light but also moment that were not easy...there were moments, as there were throughout the history of the Church, when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping."

The Pope qualified his statement by the words "seemed that." But still the impression he probably conveyed to many who were not theologically literate was that God went away for awhile, as God apparently has done throughout history when times get tough, and that in God's absence bad things happened.

Of course, the Hebrew Scriptures tell of a God who is at times angry, irascible and vengeful. The psalms especially bear testimony to this human perception. But that is exactly what it is -- a perception. It is our way of trying to understand why affliction occurs.

God neither frowns nor sleeps. The New Testament affirms in a dazzling variety of ways that none of us on this earth will ever be able to fully fathom that steadfast, unchanging, ever-present grace, mercy and love are God's most distinguishing characteristics. If God seems to frown, that is our own aura of self-condemnation projected onto the deity. If God seems to sleep, that is likewise our projection onto God of human failings which actually constitute a turning-away by us from God. We, in fact, are the ones who have gone to sleep.

We remember in these times the beautiful assurance penned by Frederick W. Faber, in Calvin Hampton's deeply mystical musical setting:

There's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of the sea;

there's a kindness in God's justice which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth's sorrows are more felt than up in heav'n.

There is no place where earth's failings have such kindly judgment giv'n.