Is Mercy Marshmallow Mushy?
My article for Aleteia this week considers the matter of mercy.
Too often mercy is no more than soft sentimentality.
It’s like marshmallows: soft, fluffy, sweet and lacking in nutrition.
“The mushy bits” were the soft, sweet, sentimental parts of the story. Those were the bits for the girls and the boys felt obliged to protest. We wanted to get that over and done with and get back to the action hero stuff.
Unfortunately, in today’s world the quality of mercy in religion seems prone to mushiness. In other words, when we think of “mercy” we too often go all soft, sweet and sentimental. We think mercy is letting people get away with wrong doing. Mercy is turning a blind eye. Mercy is forgiving everyone even when they haven’t asked to be forgiven. Mercy is above all, being nice to everyone all the time no matter what they do. We imagine that this kind of mercy is the mercy of God.
It’s not. This is not God’s mercy. This is marshmallow mercy. Puffy, sweet and worth nothing.
But sometimes God’s mercy is a severe mercy
Go here to read the whole article
