Year of Condemnation 12: True vs. False Mercy

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As Francis’ fake Year of Mercy is drawing to a close, so is our Year of Exclusion, Judgment, and Condemnation, which is being observed in direct contrast to the former. As with all other posts in this series, so too this twelfth installment will focus on some forgotten truth of the holy Catholic Faith that is considered by our sorry society to be extremely judgmental, exclusionary, negative, hateful, bigoted, intolerant, condemnatory, unwelcoming, dogmatic, narrow-minded, and everything else that oh-so-enlightened modern man despises and detests.

 

Today’s post puts the focus on God’s true mercy, as opposed to the false “mercy” that “Pope” Francis drones on and on about, a “mercy” that is allegedly given to anyone who asks “with a sincere heart”, no further questions asked or conditions required. In fact, the line that “God never tires of forgiving” has been repeated by Francis again and again, and although it can probably be understood in an orthodox sense, without further qualification and in connection with endless talk about mercy and no mention of what constitutes true repentance, it is effectively an invitation to sin with impunity.

True Catholic mercy, it turns out, requires a bit more than simply some vague idea of wanting to be forgiven. For one thing, it is necessary that the penitent in question have supernatural contrition (i.e. he must be sorry for his sins either because he has offended an all-good God who is infinitely deserving of all his love and loyalty, or because he is afraid of being punished in hell eternally as the just reward for his wickedness, or for some similar supernatural motive). This contrition must extend to at least all of his mortal sins. Furthermore, God will only show mercy to his soul if he has a firm purpose of amendment, that is, the sincere will never to commit (at least mortal) sin again, even to prefer death to offending God grievously. These conditions are not exhaustive, and they even vary a bit depending on whether one has access to the sacrament of confession or not. The key takeaway here is only that Francis’ bogus “mercy for anyone who really asks” is not the Catholic notion of mercy. (An excellent guide to making a good confession is the booklet Confession: Its Fruitful Practice [1957]. Also see Fr. Francis Ripley’s My Confession Manual [1951], which is available online here.)

As the antidote to Francis’ bogus and exaggerated “mercy”, which totally leaves out of account God’s infinite justice, we present today the following excerpt from St. Alphonsus Liguori’s book Preparation for Death, from a chapter entitled “The Delusions which the Devil puts in the Mind of Sinners”:

The sinner exclaims, “But God is merciful!” This is the third delusion which is common to sinners, and through which so many are lost. A learned author observes, that the mercy of God sends more souls to hell than the justice of God; because these miserable ones, boldly trusting in His mercy, never cease to sin, and thus are they lost. God is very merciful. Who is there that can say He is not? But notwithstanding this, how many are there who are daily sent to hell? God is merciful — but He is also just, and for that reason He is obliged to punish those who offend Him. He uses mercy, but to whom? Even to those who fear Him. “So great is His mercy also toward them that fear Him So is the Lord merciful unto them that fear Him.” (Ps. ciii. 11-13.) But to those who despise Him, and abuse His mercy in order the more to despise Him, He executes His justice upon them. And very rightly. God pardons sin; but He cannot pardon the wish to sin. S. Augustine declares, that he who sins, thinking to repent after he has committed the sin, is not a penitent, but a mocker of God. And, on the other hand, the Apostle tells us, that God will not be mocked, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” (Gal. vi. 7.) It would be mocking God to offend Him as we please, and how we please, and afterwards to expect to reach heaven.

But, as during my past life God has shown so many mercies towards me, and has not punished me, therefore do I hope He will show mercy for the future. This is the fourth delusion. Therefore, because God has had compassion upon thee, for this reason, He must ever show mercy to thee, and must never chastise thee? No, indeed, for the greater have been His mercies to thee, the more oughtest thou to tremble lest He should never pardon thee again, but should chastise thee if again thou dost offend Him. We are told not to say, “I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me? for the Most High is a patient rewarder,” (Ecclus. v. 4,) for God endures, but will not do so for ever; when the mercies which He is willing to show towards a sinner come to an end, then does He punish the sinner for his sins altogether. And the longer He has waited for the sinner to repent, so much the more severe will be the sinner’s punishment; as S. Gregory observes, “Those whom He waits for the longer, He punishes the more severely.” If, therefore, my brother, thou feelest that thou hast offended God many times, and that God has not sent thee to hell, thou oughtest to say, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.” (Lam. iii. 22.) Lord, I thank Thee that Thou hast not sent me to hell as I deserved. Think of the number who have been condemned for less sins than thine. And with this thought thou oughtest to seek as far as thou canst to atone for the offences thou hast committed against God, by repentance, prayer, and good works. The patience that God has shown towards thee ought to animate thee, not, indeed, to displease Him more, but to serve Him better and to love Him more; seeing that He has shown so many mercies to thee, which He has not shown to others.

(St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Preparation for Death [Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott & Co., 1869], pp. 171-172)

This is the true Catholic position regarding mercy, enunciated here by St. Alphonsus, the holy Redemptorist bishop canonized by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839 and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1871.

Enough of the phony mercy of Jorge Bergoglio! Enough of the false gospel of the Novus Ordo Sect!

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