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Link to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-lord-have-mercy.htm
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Is man more merciful than God?
Many of our prayers in which we implore God's mercy (e.g. in the confession of guilt in the service, in the “Lord, have mercy”, at funerals, ...) appear problematic. These are the prayers in which we stand up for one another before God and call on the saints to ask God's mercy. It sounds as if we humans are more solidary, understanding and compassionate for one another than God is for us. In the Church's confession of guilt, we implore the “Blessed Virgin Mary, all the angels and saints” and our “sisters and brothers” to ask God to remit our sins. Do we have to play all kinds of "good relationships" to storm God, to soften His heart?
Applied to Jesus' parable of the "Merciful Father", this would mean that the prodigal son comes home, but the Father does not show up. The mother runs into him and then also his brother and servants and maidservants. And he asks all of them to go in to the Father and put in a good word for him, so that he may have mercy on him. But this is not how the parable reads!
Jesus makes it clear in this parable: The "problem" is not God, but people among themselves. For God in the image of the "Merciful Father" waits patiently for the “prodigal son”, he looks for him and, as soon as he sees him coming, hurries towards him with open arms. But then he has another problem: How can he move his older son to accept his brother again, to reach out to him again? The latter, in fact, has developed a deep contempt and an inner denial towards his younger brother. Jesus makes it clear: the problem lies between people: they often fail to forgive one another, to meet one another with compassion and understanding. Between people there is emotional hardening, bitterness, and a closed heart. It is God's concern to move people towards reconciliation with one another. He is not the excluding, not the punishing God, but he is the source of mercy and peace.
But by the way we pray, we humans present ourselves as the more merciful, more merciful than God. At funerals, too, it must be considered whether it is appropriate to implore God’s mercy for the deceased. Shouldn't we rather seek God's help so that we can properly bid farewell and forgive the deceased, and obtain forgiveness from the deceased, so that a reconciliation between the living and the deceased becomes possible across the threshold of death? But if we shift the problem to God, then there is the danger of overlooking and repressing the actual emotional problems between people instead of solving them. In this way we distract Christians from the real problems of interpersonal conflicts. Instead, we are struggling with a problem that does not even exist: to obtain the mercy of God. For the source of mercy, one does not have to constantly plead for mercy. That is why the second part of the official confession of guilt sounds like blasphemy to me. God must first be moved to mercy!?? Rather, it is necessary to analyze the often very complex interpersonal conflicts and - with God’s help - to seek and walk the paths of reconciliation and peace.
A corresponding reform of our prayers - especially in the Holy Mass - is urgently needed!
Manfred Hanglberger (www.hanglberger-manfred.de)
Link to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-lord-have-mercy.htm
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