Tender compassion which Jesus Christ entertains towards sinners
“Make the men sit down.”—John 6:10
In this day’s gospel we read that, when our Redeemer was on a mountain with his disciples and a multitude of nearly five thousand persons who had followed him because they saw the miracles he worked on the sick, he asked St. Philip: “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” St. Philip answered: “Lord, two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient that every one may take a little.” Then St. Andrew said: There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fishes; but what are these among so many? Yet Jesus Christ said: “Make the men sit down.” And he had the loaves and fishes distributed among them. They not only satisfied the whole multitude, but when the fragments that remained were gathered up, they filled twelve baskets.
The Lord worked this great miracle out of compassion for the bodily wants of these poor people; but far greater is his compassion for the wants of the soul—that is, for sinners who are deprived of the divine grace. This tender compassion of Jesus Christ for sinners shall be the subject of this day’s discourse.
1. Moved by his tender mercy toward men, who groaned in misery under the slavery of sin and Satan, our most loving Redeemer descended from heaven to earth to redeem them and save them from eternal death by his own death. So sang St. Zachary, the father of the Baptist, when the Blessed Virgin Mary, already become the mother of the Incarnate Word, entered his house: “Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us” (Luke 1:78).
2. Jesus Christ then declared that he was that good shepherd who had come on earth to give salvation to us his sheep: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Mark the word “more abundantly,” which signifies that he came not only to restore to us the lost life of grace, but to give us a life more abundant and better than the one we lost by sin. Yes; for as St. Leo says, by his death Jesus brought us a greater good than the harm the devil had done us by sin. Ampliora adepti sumus per Christi gratiam quam per diaboli amiseramus invidiam—“We have gained greater things through the grace of Christ than we lost through the envy of the devil” (Sermon 1 on the Ascension).
The Apostle signified the same when he said that grace had surpassed the offense: “Where sin abounded, grace did more abound” (Rom. 5:20).
3. But, my Lord, since you have willed to take human flesh, a single prayer of yours would have been enough to redeem all men. What need, then, was there to lead a life so poor and despised for thirty-three years, and to die a death so bitter and shameful, dying of sorrow on an infamous tree, shedding all your blood by dint of torments? Yes, answers Jesus Christ, I know well that one drop of my blood, or a single prayer of mine, would have been enough to save the world; but it would not have been enough to show the love I bear to men. And so I have willed to suffer and die by a death so cruel, that I might be loved by men once they had seen me die for love of them.
This, he says, is what it means to be a good shepherd: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep” (John 10:11, 15).
4. O men, O men, what greater proof of love could the Son of God give us than to lay down his life for us his sheep? “In this we have known the charity of God; because he hath laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). No one, said the same Savior, can show greater love to his friends than to give his life for them. “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). But you, O Lord, died not only for friends, but for us who by our sins were your enemies. “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10).
Oh, immense love of our God, exclaims St. Bernard: “to spare slaves, neither has the Father spared the Son, nor the Son himself.” To pardon us, his rebellious servants, the Father would not spare the Son, and the Son would not spare himself, but by his death satisfied the divine justice for the sins we had committed.
5. As Jesus Christ was drawing near to his passion, he went one day to Samaria; but the Samaritans refused to receive him. Indignant at this insult offered to their Master, St. James and St. John turned to him and said: “Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” (Luke 9:54). But Jesus, who was full of sweetness even toward those who despised him, answered: “You know not of what spirit you are. The Son of Man came not to destroy souls, but to save” (vv. 55, 56).
He rebuked them sharply, saying: And what spirit is this of yours? This is not my spirit; mine is a spirit of patience and compassion toward sinners, for I have come to save souls, not to destroy them; and you speak of fire, of punishments, and of vengeance? Hence, in another place, he said to his disciples: “Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart” (Matt. 11:29). I do not wish you to learn of me to chastise, but to be meek, and to bear and pardon injuries.
6. Beautifully did he declare the tenderness of his heart toward sinners when he said: “What man of you that hath an hundred sheep: and, if he lose one of them, doth he not leave ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which is lost until he find it?” (Luke 15:4). If anyone, he said, has a hundred sheep and loses one, he leaves the ninety-nine and goes in search of the lost one, and does not cease seeking until he finds it. And then he added: “And when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulder rejoicing; and coming home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost?” (Luke 15:5, 6). And when he finds it, that he may lose it no more, he sets it on his shoulders, and then calls his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him at having found the lost sheep. But, Lord, the joy should be not so much yours as the sheep’s, for having found you, her shepherd and her God. Yes, answers Jesus Christ, the sheep rejoices at finding me, her shepherd; but greater still is my own joy at finding the lost sheep.
And then he concludes: “I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven, for one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just, who need not penance” (Luke 15:7). Greater, he says, is the joy in heaven over one sinner who is converted than over ninety-nine just men who keep their innocence. And what sinner can be so hardened that, hearing this, and knowing the love with which Jesus Christ waits to embrace him and set him on his shoulders when he repents of his sins, would not at once go and cast himself at his feet?
7. The Lord likewise declared this tenderness toward penitent sinners in the parable of the prodigal son, as we read in St. Luke (Luke 15:12, etc.). There it is told that a certain young man, unwilling to remain any longer under his father’s authority, but wishing to live in his own way amid vice, asked for his portion; and the father gave it to him with sorrow, weeping over his ruin. The son left his father’s house, and in a short time, having squandered his substance, was reduced to such misery that, to live, he was forced to feed swine.
All this is a figure of the sinner who, departing from God and losing the divine grace, loses also all the merits he had acquired, and is reduced to a life of misery under the slavery of the devil. St. Luke then says that the young man, seeing himself reduced to such misery, resolved to return to his father; and the father, who is a figure of Jesus Christ, when he saw his son returning to his feet, was at once moved to compassion: “His father saw him, and was moved with compassion” (v. 20). And so, instead of driving him away, as that ungrateful son deserved, “running to him, he fell upon his neck and kissed him.” He went to meet him with open arms, and in his tenderness fell upon his neck and consoled him with his embraces.
Then he said to his servants: “Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him.” The first robe signifies the divine grace, which God, in pardoning, restores to the penitent sinner, together with new heavenly gifts, as St. Jerome and St. Augustine explain. “And put a ring on his finger.” Give him the spousal ring; for the soul, in recovering the grace of God, becomes again the spouse of Jesus Christ. “And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry” (v. 23). Bring the fatted calf, which signifies Jesus in the sacrament, mystically sacrificed and slain on the altar, that is, the Holy Communion. Come, he says, let us make a feast, let us eat and rejoice.
But why, O divine Father, so great a feast for the return of a son who has been so ungrateful to you? Because, he answers, “this my son was dead, and is come to life again; he was lost, and is found.” I make a feast because this my son was dead to me, and now is risen; for me he was lost, and now I have found him.
8. This tenderness of Jesus Christ was well felt by that sinful woman—who, according to St. Gregory, was St. Mary Magdalene—who one day went and cast herself at the feet of Jesus Christ, as we read in St. Luke, and washed his feet with her tears (Luke 7:47, 50). And the Lord, all sweetness, turned to her and consoled her, saying: “Thy sins are forgiven… thy faith hath made thee safe; go in peace” (Luke 7:48, 50). Daughter, your sins are forgiven you; the confidence you have had in me has saved you; go in peace.
It was felt too by that poor man who had been infirm for thirty-eight years, sick in body and in soul. The Lord healed him of his malady and pardoned his sins; and then he said to him: “Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee” (John 5:14). It was felt also by that leper who said to Jesus Christ: “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean” (Matt. 8:2). And Jesus answered: “I will: be thou made clean” (v. 3). As if he said: Yes, I will it; for to this end I have come down from heaven, to console all. Be healed as you desire. And in that same instant it came to pass: “And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed.”
9. It was felt also by the woman taken in adultery, whom the scribes and pharisees brought before Jesus Christ. They said to him: In the law of Moses it is ordained that such women should be stoned; what then do you say? “Now Moses, in the law, commanded us to stone such a one. But what sayest thou?” (John 8:5). And this, as St. John writes, they said to tempt him, that they might afterward accuse him as a transgressor of the law if he answered that she should be released, or make him lose his name for meekness if he answered that she should be stoned. Si dicat lapidandam—“If he says she should be stoned,” explains St. Augustine, famam perdet mansuetudinis; sin dimittendam, transgressae legis accusabitur—“he will lose his reputation for meekness; but if he says she should be released, he will be accused of transgressing the law” (Tract. 33 on John).
But what did the Lord answer? He said neither the one nor the other, but, “bowing himself down, he wrote with his finger on the ground.” This writing on the ground, the interpreters say, was probably some sentence of Scripture admonishing the accusers of their own sins, which were perhaps greater than that of the woman; and then he said to them: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (v. 7). But they, as the Evangelist relates, went away one by one, and the woman alone remained.
Jesus Christ turned to her and said: “Hath no one condemned thee? neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more” (v. 11). Come now, he said to her, since none of these has condemned you, do not think that I will condemn you—I who have not come on earth to condemn sinners, but to pardon them and save them. Go in peace, and from now on sin no more.
10. No, Jesus Christ has not come to condemn sinners, but to deliver them from hell whenever they are willing to amend. And when he sees them obstinate in willing their own ruin, he says to them, as if weeping, in the words of Ezekiel: “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek. 18:31). As if he would say: My children, why will you die? Why will you go to hell, when I have come from heaven to deliver you, by my death, from that hell?
And then he adds, by the same prophet: You are already dead to the divine grace; but I do not will your death. Return to me, and I will restore to you the life which you have so miserably lost. “For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: return ye and live” (v. 32). But some sinner, finding himself too heavily laden with sins, may say: Who knows whether Jesus Christ will drive me away? No, Jesus Christ answers him: “And him that cometh to me I will not cast out” (John 6:37). No one who comes to me repentant of the sins he has committed shall be driven away by me, however many and enormous his faults may have been.
11. See how, in another place, our Redeemer gives us courage to go to his feet with a sure hope of being consoled and pardoned: “Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matt. 11:28). Come to me, all you poor sinners who labor to damn yourselves and groan under the weight of your iniquities; come, and I will deliver you from all your distress. And in another place he goes so far as to say: “Come and accuse me, saith the Lord; if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow” (Isa. 1:18).
Come, repentant of the offenses you have committed against me, and if I do not pardon you, accuse me. As if he said: Take it up with me, and reproach me as a liar; for I promise that, though your sins were black as scarlet dye—that is, however horrible and enormous they may have been—your soul, washed by my blood, shall become white and beautiful as snow.
12. Quickly, then, sinners, my brethren, let us return to Jesus Christ if we have left him; quickly, before death overtakes us in sin and we are condemned to hell, where all these mercies the Lord shows us shall become, if we do not amend, so many swords that shall lacerate our heart for all eternity.
Points for Reflection
1. “And what sinner can be so hardened that, hearing this, and knowing the love with which Jesus Christ waits to embrace him and set him on his shoulders when he repents of his sins, would not at once go and cast himself at his feet?” (§6)
2. “Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Come to me, all you poor sinners who labor to damn yourselves and groan under the weight of your iniquities; come, and I will deliver you from all your distress” (§11)
3. “Quickly, then, sinners, my brethren, let us return to Jesus Christ if we have left him; quickly, before death overtakes us in sin and we are condemned to hell” (§12)