Mercy has many forms: may older people always show mercy by encouraging younger people
Fifth Sunday of Lent – April 6, 2025
How do we move forward in life when we make big mistakes? The readings this week teach us about the important role of older generations to nurture, guide & empower the younger people. The readings highlight the mercy of God (1st Reading) and the mercy of Jesus (Gospel).
But mercy is not just about forgiving: mercy takes many forms. And one important form getting lost in many countries is the fatherly encouragement of dads to their sons.
One of the reasons for this is the increasing breakdown in the structure of our communities and families. There is less volunteering by young people and, therefore, less people to appreciate and encourage them for their kindness and generosity. In the past, it’s true, many young people were ‘pushed’ by their parents to volunteer in the community, but all of them benefited.
Now, when we link less community involvement, and increasing single parent families, the opportunities for young people to be appreciated by significant people in their lives is reducing.
Mercy is also doing for people what is necessary for their health: hence, encouraging young people is essential for their wellbeing. Young people need positive encouragement and reinforcement of the good things they do, to build up their self-worth. Ignoring them means we have no mercy for the abandonment many feel: leading to anger and violence.
Although parents try to prevent their children from making mistakes, which is good; wise parents also give their children more and more freedom as they grow older: this gives them practice at making choices and also making mistakes, but hopefully small ones!
But, of course, there will always be occasions when we make big mistakes, and we need a way forward that helps us learn, without destroying our spirit. Our 1st Reading brilliantly illustrates how God constantly encouraged the people of God: not just through forgiveness for past sins, but actively encouraging the people by ensuring the land provides well for the people:
For example: “The wild beasts will honour me, jackals and ostriches, because I am putting water in the wilderness (rivers in the wild) to give my chosen people drink.”
Likewise for older generations, when we correct (punish?) our young people, let us also say more than words to forgive them: let us also create frameworks and environments where young people can be creative and build, or discover solutions, for the world’s challenges.
In St Paul’s letter, there is this text: “All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death.”
This is true for both the young person who has “sinned” and the older people caring for them.
To know Christ, at a basic level, is to know that I am still loved despite my failings. And through that love (transmitted by parents, teachers and carers, etc.), they do experience many resurrections, even if they don’t realise what they are.
The last part of the quote is more for the older generations: that through their sufferings due to the failures by their young people, and the painful consequences of their mistakes, the older people are reproducing the pattern of Christ’s death. We pray today that older generations may be encouraged by God’s Word, to know that their perseverance, forgiveness and encouragement for the young people, will bring them to great moments of resurrection and joy.
The final Word for today, I think, is designed to give us more reason to be patient with the mistakes of others. It seems that, generally, young people are often quicker to forgive each other than older people are. Perhaps because young people are more aware of their mistakes.
But, as we grow older, we grow wiser (hopefully), and make less mistakes; but don’t forget we still make mistakes! So, perhaps the fewer mistakes, makes us less patient and forgiving? The more forgiving we are, the more likely younger people will seek us out for advice.
However, the final lesson for today is simple: “Jesus looked up and said, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her’.” Let us remember our own mistakes and, more importantly, how many times we have been forgiven.
Lent is a time to recall the past, not to dwell in it, but to let it humble us. To recall the past, to help us be merciful today. To recall the past to help us avoid the wrong thing today and prepare a beautiful tomorrow. Fr Charlie OMI, an Oblate in Indonesia, shared how one of the students knifed a teacher and was removed from the school.
The Dad came begging for another chance, so Fr Charlie placed him in another of his schools. Fr Charlie reasoned it this way: he wants to be a lawyer. One day he might be a Judge. He’ll be a kind Judge, because he knows how it feels to be condemned and given a second chance.
May we also imitate this “crazy” God of ours: the God of second chances, who provides water in the desert. Who can you encourage or forgive this week?
By Gerard Conlan, OMI
