The Kindness of Jesus to Sinners
Selections from the Sermons of Bl. Claude Colombìere, S.J.
FATHER GEORGE O'NEILL, S.J., EDITOR
TAKEN FROM THE SERVANT OF THE SACRED HEART
Herder Book Co., St. Louis, MO, 1933
Nihil Obstat Joannes
Barton, D.D. F.S.A.
Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat, 1933
[1274, 1275, 1283]
I do not see that there is any sinner in the whole Gospel story who was
brought to repentance otherwise than by kindness and by benefits. Our
Lord drew to Himself St. Matthew, Zacchaeus and other publicans by
inviting Himself to eat with them and showing that He did not spurn
their company,---unlike the Pharisees who treated them as infamous
persons. He won the heart of Magdalen---not by severe reproaches, but
by permitting her to draw near to Him, praising what was praiseworthy
in her action, taking up her defense against the respectable people
whom she scandalized. Any other but Jesus would have pronounced against
the woman taken in adultery the sentence of death written in the Law;
but He saved her by a miracle; He obliged the judges and the accusers
to retire, and, when she stood alone, He said: "Woman, has no one,
then, condemned thee?" "No one, Lord," she answered. "Neither, then,
will I condemn thee. Go now and sin no more." He did not put to shame
the Samaritan woman by at once recalling to her what He knew concerning
her sinful life; He quietly won her to make her own confession; after
that first step He so gained on her that she admitted everything,
recognized Him for what He was and made Him known to all that city of
Samaria. What did He not do to win back Judas? Everything, except to
confound or denounce him or speak to him harshly. He showed him clearly
that He knew of his crime, but spoke so that the others did not
understand; He washed his feet and wiped them, He suffered the traitor
to kiss Him, He called him "Friend", He called him by his name, He
uttered no word of bitterness or anger. To move Peter to repentance He
was content with a look; and it was not a look that struck terror, but
a look full of tenderness and affection. Finally, to conquer the
obstinacy of Thomas, He took the doubting Apostle's hand and gently
placed it in the wound of His pierced side.
If, when God seeks to convert us, He were striving for some interest or
advantage of His Own, I should not be surprised at His acting with such
extreme moderation and clemency; but since His zeal has no other end
than to withdraw us from sin and death, we may well wonder that He acts
so delicately and so patiently spares us and yields to us. When a
father sees his child in danger of death by drowning or by fire, he
does not consider whether he seizes him by the foot or by the hand,
whether he drags him into safety by his clothes or by his hair, whether
he hurts him or not, provided only he can rescue him from that extreme
peril. But God seems to have consideration for our weakness even in the
extremity of our dangers; He studies our humor, inclination,
disposition, even our passions and bad habits, in order to seize and
draw us in the way that will pain us least. To the man that loves gain
He offers the treasures of Heaven; to the miser He suggests the
terrible poverty in which he will find himself in the next life; to the
votary of pleasures He insinuates the peaceful joys of a life free from
guilt, from remorse and from the warfare of the passions; to one who
shrinks from suffering and pain He recalls the endless sufferings of
the lost; to one who is of affectionate and grateful disposition He
recalls His benefits---the blessings that He has given, is giving, and
proposes in future to give.
But if this delicacy and ingenuity of your Lord in drawing you to Him
has not powerfully struck you, at least you cannot have failed to
notice His constancy, His perseverance; for surely we have, most of us,
strangely tried and proved it! Were there not long periods during which
you heard but would not even listen to His voice? If you listened, how
long did you not deliberate as to whether and how far you would yield
to His urgent and loving invitations! When at length you were persuaded
that it was best for you to give yourself wholly to Him, how many
battles were still required in order to induce your will, your heart,
to follow the light of your mind! How many delays, what compromises,
what promises made and broken, what good resolutions unfulfilled, what
resistances and failures in the work of giving Him what He asked of
you!
Encouragement for the Prodigal
O my God, Your love has been proof against this long, this insulting
resistance! It did not grow cold; You have continued to pursue me, to
call me, to entreat me, to cherish me. "Who knows," You seem to have
said to Yourself, " whether that heart will not at length let itself be
softened, after having been so long obdurate? I see that it will not be
soon; I see that the resolutions of today will not be kept better than
the resolutions of six months ago; that tomorrow and tomorrow will
still be the date of its conversion; but perhaps also if I continue to
pursue, at length it will cease to fly from Me. [1] Gladly would I see it Mine this moment; but I prefer to wait for it a long time rather than to lose it for ever."
God hates sin with a kind of infinite hatred, and the soul stained with
sin necessarily brings on itself something of that hatred. Yet God does
not cease to love such a soul, to extend to it His arms, to offer it
the kiss of peace, to pursue it as if it were something perfectly
beautiful.
"Whom do you pursue, O king of Israel?" said David long ago to Saul,
and we might well repeat what he said to that Divine love that concerns
itself so with us. "Quem persequeris? Canem mortuum persequeris?"
After whom dost Thou run, O King of Heaven and earth. You are pursuing
a vile creature that, far from deserving Your affection, is not worth
even Your anger, and might well cause You merely feelings of disgust. 
And
we, dear Christians, from Whom do we fly? What can we mean by despising
this Lover, trifling so long with His patience, refusing the friendship
and union that He offers and urges upon us? We know Who it is that is
calling us in the depths of our souls, and yet we are not afraid to
allow the Master of the Universe to come and knock at our doors, to
keep Him waiting so long without deigning to open or to answer. What
ought I to wonder at most, O my God, Your patience or our obstinacy,
Your love or our hardness of heart? What will be the confusion of such
an ungrateful and audacious soul, whenever You open its eyes; how shall
it dare to appear in Your presence after having so treated You? And if
we have the courage to present ourselves, will the Almighty deign to
receive us? Yes, my brethren, so long as this life lasts He will not
fail to receive the sinner, if only, after his long wanderings, he will
return repentant to his duty and allegiance. Nay; I say more: that
divine love which impelled our God to pursue us in our flight, leads
Him also to anticipate and meet us on our return, and to rejoice with
an extraordinary joy when He once more clasps us in His arms.
Insensible, surely, is the sinner whom such patience, such indulgence,
such love does not draw to repentance. But more unhappy still is the
sinner who defers repentance and resists the Divine Love just because
it is waiting for him with so much patience; who does not ask for
pardon just because God is always ready to grant it; who is evil
because God is good; who sins easily because He forgives easily; who is
willing to displease because He is so unwilling to punish.
O Lord, deign to perfect in each of us the work of Your infinite mercy!
Do not permit it to become hurtful to us or useless to us; do not let
us be lost in the very ocean of Your generosity! Grant that the
infinite love You have for the sinner may compel him to feel an almost
infinite hatred for sin; compel him to love You changelessly on earth
that he may come to love you changelessly in Heaven!
1. Many of these ideas have been anew and beautifully expressed in the poetry of Francis Thompson's "Hound of Heaven".
VIEW THE FULL IMAGE OF JESUS WITH CHILDREN
E-MAIL
HOME-------------------CATECHISM
www.catholictradition.org/Children/kindness-jesus.htm
