The wideness of God’s Mercy

Bishop Scott Bullock
The 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time
February 23, 2025

“Monseigneur, the man is gone! The silver has been stolen!” 

As Madame Magloire uttered this exclamation, her eyes fell upon a corner of the garden, where traces of the wall had been scaled and visible. The coping of the wall had been torn away. 

“Stay! yonder is the way he went. He jumped over into Cochefilet Lane. Ah, the abomination! He has stolen our silver!” 

Thus begins an early scene in Victor Hugo’s astonishing classic, Les Misérables. The text continues, “The bishop remained silent for a moment; then he raised his grave eyes, and said gently to Madame Magloire: ‘And, in the first place, was that silver ours?’” 

Madame Magloire was speechless. Another silence ensued; then the bishop went on, “Madame Magloire, I have for a long time detained that silver wrongfully. It belonged to the poor. Who was that man? A poor man, evidently.”

“Alas! Jesus!” returned Madame Magloire. “It is not for my sake, nor for Mademoiselle’s. It makes no difference to us. But it is for the sake of Monseigneur. What is Monseigneur to eat with now?” 

The bishop gazed at her with an air of amazement. “Ah, come! Are there no such things as pewter forks and spoons?”

Soon after, in the novel, the police arrive at the door of the bishop’s residence, with the thief, Jean Valjean, under arrest. Meeting them at the door, Bishop Bienvenu says, “Ah! here you are! I am glad to see you. Well, but how is this? I gave you the candlesticks too, which are silver like the rest, and for them you can certainly get two hundred francs. Why did you not carry them away with your forks and spoons?” 

Jean Valjean opened his eyes wide, and stared at the venerable bishop with an expression which no human tongue can render any account of.

“Monseigneur,” said the brigadier of gendarmes, “so what this man says is true, then? We came across him. He was walking like a man who is running away. We stopped him to look into the matter. He had this silver …”

“And he told you,” interposed the bishop with a smile, “that it had been given to him by a kind old fellow of a priest with whom he had passed the night? I see how the matter stands. And you have brought him back here? It is a mistake.”

So amazed, Jean Valjean is released from custody and the police depart. The bishop then says to Valjean, “My friend, before you go, here are your candlesticks. Take them.” 

Jean Valjean was like a man on the point of fainting at this point. The bishop drew near to him, said in a low voice, “Do not forget that you have promised to use this money to become an honest man.”

Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of ever having promised anything, remained speechless. The bishop continued, “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy for you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.” 

And because of this act of mercy by the bishop, Jean Valjean is set on a course of redemption and new life.

Well, in today’s Gospel, Jesus commands us, when others have harmed us unjustly, to renounce any punishment and retribution. When others mistreat us as enemies, he calls us to humbly respond with generosity because God has first shown us the generosity of mercy.  After the call to “turn the other cheek,” to give to those who have taken from us, and to bless those who speak a curse against us, Jesus concludes with the basis of our motivations to act in these counterintuitive ways. He says, “Be merciful just as your father has been merciful.” 

We don’t have to look far to see the wideness of God’s mercy: creation, this world given to us, the salvation of Jesus, the promise of eternal life. It is indisputable — God has shown us great mercies.  How can we withhold mercy from others?  

Certainly, others have not shown us mercy. You know who they are in your life. Then Jesus says, “Bring my mercy to them, that they may be healed.”

Bishop Bienvenu, the name means “welcome,” had been offended by a theft.  His response is mercy. A mercy when, patterned on the mercy of the Father, is saving and restoring for Jean Valjean. It is for this reason that the bishop concludes, “You no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy back from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.”

So, brothers and sisters, showing the mercy demanded by Jesus is about the other’s salvation and life. When Jesus asks us to show mercy like the Father’s, the implication is that we can actually do that. So, joined to Jesus, he empowers us with his love to show His mercy and restore and save others. As sons and daughters of God, we are thus sent on a mission to bring the saving mercy to those who need it. So Lord we pray, give us the love we need, the mercy we need, to be your instruments of mercy and healing. That sacred work of healing into which you invite us all!