The Father of Mercy and Folly

            Oftentimes, many Christians envision God the Father only as an angry God who demands justice and perfection, perhaps even projecting their own faulty fathers. These Christians usually look only to Jesus for their consolation and the love that they seek, while missing the Father’s. Yet, we know from Jesus’ own words, that he was only ever doing and saying what the Father wanted him to do and say (John 12:49). It was in Jesus’ Person that he revealed God the Father as the God of Mercies, the God of Love, who sent his only Son to give his life for the life of the world.

            Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J. once wrote that we often speak of the “folly of the Cross,” as the Scriptures put it, but rarely ever ponder the “folly of the Father’s love.”¹ The Father himself is one who sent the Messiah for our salvation. The Father is the one who “gave his only Son” to die, so that a world full of sinners, who return no such love to the One Who Loves, may have forgiveness, life, healing and peace. Moreover, the Father sent the Messiah, so that we may be one with him!

Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24 NRSVCE). He was constantly only speaking about the Father and his will: “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day" (John 6:39 NRSVCE). That “life” that Christ desires for us is the same life that he shares with the Father: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us […] so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me,” Jesus prayed (John 17:21-23 NRSVCE).

The “folly of the Father’s love” is that he sent the one, perfect Son, who had never disregarded his infinite and unconditional love to die a torturous and unjust death for the sake of us, degenerate sinners, who had spited the Father’s love and abandoned him to our own self-destructive ways. What folly! What mercy! What love! None of us would ever do such a thing. We are completely undeserving of this grace.

There is one request, though, from the Father, through Christ himself. That one request is to love as he has loved us. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21). This is no mere call to baptize people and to tell people about the love of Jesus. This is a call to obey the Father as Jesus has obeyed every word of the Father, including and especially to love unto death of self: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me" (John 14:23,24 NRSVCE). He is calling us to the “Father’s Folly.” He is calling us to love others has he has loved us, without regard to worldly consequences. Rise, let us be on our way.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NRSVCE

¹ Plus, Raoul. The Little Book of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Model of Christians, Cause of Our Joy. Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Institute, 2010. Print.