Here and Now with Francis 3/31/16 (mercy, justice, forgiveness, sin, God, journey, redemption, King David)
God is greater than our sin. Let us not forget this: God is greater than our sin!
From the general audience
Today we finish the catecheses on mercy in the Old Testament, and we do so meditating on Psalm 51, known as the Miserere. [...] The “title” that the ancient Jewish tradition gave this Psalm makes reference to King David and his sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. We know the affair well. King David, called by God to tend His People and to lead them on paths of obedience to the Divine Law, betrays his mission and, after having committed adultery with Bathsheba, has her husband killed. Terrible sin! Nathan, the prophet, reveals his guilt to him and helps him to acknowledge it. It is the moment of reconciliation with God, in the confession of his sin. And here David was humble; he was great! [...] The Psalmist entrusts himself to God’s goodness; he knows that divine forgiveness is extremely effective, because it creates that which it says. Sin is not hidden, but it is destroyed and blotted out; however, it is blotted out in fact from the root, not as they do at the drycleaners, when we take a garment to have a stain removed. No! God blots out our sin in fact from the root, all of it! Therefore, the penitent becomes pure again, every stain is eliminated and he is now whiter than uncontaminated snow. [...]
If you fall into sin out of weakness, raise your hand: the Lord will take it and help you to rise. This is the dignity of God’s forgiveness. The dignity that God’s forgiveness gives us is that of rising, of standing always, because He created man and woman to stand. [full text]
