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The evil angels, says St. Augustine, suffer the just punishment for their betrayal. We might have suffered the same way, but instead God chose to show us completely undeserved mercy.
The whole human race was condemned, ruined. It delighted in evil. It plummeted from one evil to another. It made common cause with the fallen an- gels, and it was suffering the punishment—which was completely deserved—for its wicked betrayal. For we must say that God’s anger is quite rightly turned on the things wicked people do freely, in their blind, uncontrolled lust. Obviously, whatever punishments they have to suffer, in the open or in secret, come from that anger. But the goodness of the Creator never stops sustaining life and vigor, even for the evil angels. If that sustenance were taken away, they would no longer exist.
Humanity comes from a corrupt and condemned line. But we still have the power to conceive offspring, to direct our limbs in their worldly business, and to nourish the body. God decided that it was better to bring good from evil than not to allow any evil to exist.
If God had decided that human beings could never reform—as he did de- cide with the evil angels—wouldn’t that have been just? Humanity deserted God. We used our powers for evil, to stomp down and run afoul of our Creator’s laws, though we could easily have kept them. We stubbornly turned away from God’s light. We violated the image of the Creator in us. Using our free will for evil, we tore ourselves away from the healthy discipline of God’s law. Wouldn’t it have been just if God had completely abandoned a creature like that, and sent us to the eternal punishment we deserved?
God would certainly have done that if he were only just, and not merciful as well—if he had not decided to manifest his mercy much more dramatically by pardoning some who did not deserve it. –St. Augustine, Enchiridion, chapter 5
IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
How am I repaying God’s completely undeserved mercy?
Do I do as the angels do, repaying him with a life of consistent service?
CLOSING PRAYER
Guardian Angel, keep God’s mercy in my mind, and teach me to show the same compassion to others.
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