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A Spirit of Mercy

 

by Rev. Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem. (’94)
Prefect of Studies, St. Michael’s Abbey
Baccalaureate Mass of the Holy Spirit
Commencement 2025
Thomas Aquinas College, ����ӰԺ

 

When the Apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the Word of God, they sent Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit …

 

This simple passage from the Acts of the Apostles seems ordinary enough. Just another case of non-Jewish people accepting the Gospel and another opportunity for the Church to add more converts through its missionary activity. It seems to be the constant refrain of the Acts of the Apostles: some Gentiles here, some Gentiles there, all welcoming the good news about Jesus. Meanwhile the Apostles go out and gather an abundant harvest, though not without some persecution along the way.

But a more careful and complete reading of Scripture reveals a much more dramatic episode. Recall this event recorded in the Gospel according to St. Luke:

When the days drew near for Him to be received up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem. And He sent messengers ahead of Him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him; but the people would not receive Him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to bid fire come down from Heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, saying: “You do not know of whose Spirit you are. The Son of Man came not to destroy souls, but to save them.” And they went on to another village (Lk 9:51-56 Vulgate).

In its larger context, this passage parallels an event in the life of the prophet Elijah. We read in the book of Kings that at one point, Elijah has fled to Mount Horeb, where God reveals Himself to him and speaks to him. God tells him that He will find Elisha and anoint him as his successor. Elisha asks permission to say goodbye to his parents before he follows Elijah. As the two of them go on to the place where Elijah is to be taken up into Heaven, they pass through Samaria and are confronted by the troops of the king of Samaria. Elijah calls down fire from Heaven which consumes them, and they eventually go on to the place where Elijah is taken up into Heaven.

The events recorded in Luke’s Gospel closely parallel the life of Elijah. Jesus has just come down from Mount Tabor, where God the Father has spoken to Him. St. Luke notes that Jesus is about to be taken up and is traveling through Samaria, where he does not receive a kind welcome. The disciples ask if they should call down fire from Heaven to consume the inhospitable Samaritans. As He journeys further, Jesus encounters a man who wants to follow Him, but wants first to say goodbye to his parents, to which Jesus responds: No man putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

“In your evangelization, you must have the Spirit of Christ. And that Spirit is more than a Spirit of justice: it is also a Spirit of mercy.”

The likenesses between Christ and Elijah are remarkable and unmistakable, but we ought to attend carefully also to the differences: In contrast to Elijah, Jesus rebukes His disciples for wanting to call down fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans.

The missionary journey of Peter and John to the Samaritans happened only a few months after the event narrated in St. Luke about the rejection of Jesus by the Samaritans. And so, consider what was going on in the heart of St. John as he looked about and saw the fervent faith of the Samaritans, who only months ago he was hoping would be consumed by fire. I suppose for John it was the occasion of deep contrition. Before, John wanted to call down a destroying fire; now John was sent to call down the saving fire of the Holy Spirit.

All of this is to fulfill what was said about the Lord Jesus in the prophet Isaiah: “A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not quench.” Where there is even the smallest hope of healing and repentance, the Lord continues to show mercy. Thanks be to God, for how many times have I been a bruised reed and a smoldering wick?

Since your baptism, dear graduates, and especially since your confirmation, you have been called by the Lord and sent to bring His saving Gospel to every creature. Having been well-trained in the truths of the faith here at Thomas Aquinas College, that duty is even greater, for to whom much has been given, much will be expected. Let no one of you who graduate today come at last to Heaven barren, devoid of an abundant harvest of souls won for Christ. Yet, in your evangelization, you must have the Spirit of Christ. And that Spirit is more than a Spirit of justice: it is also a Spirit of mercy.

A sense of justice is natural, inborn as it were, to every man. Just try to divide up a piece of birthday cake for two small children, and make one half much larger than the other to see how natural a sense of justice is. No one has to learn about what’s fair. We know it instinctively from the time of small children.

It is therefore understandable that James and John are indignant at the Samaritans’ refusal to welcome Jesus. They want justice to be done. They want the punishment of God to come down upon them as when God consumed with fire those who resisted Elijah or those who rebelled against Moses, or when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire.

Justice comes naturally, but mercy has to be learned, and is the work of grace. This is why Jesus rebukes James and John by saying: You know not of what Spirit you are. The Son of man came not to destroy souls but to save.

It is an interesting facet of human experience that we want to administer justice but to receive mercy. This is why we find Elijah doing an act of justice in the old Covenant in overcoming the enemies of God, but we find Christ employing mercy in the new Covenant to overcome the enemies of God by converting them into His friends. It is not that justice is bad, it is simply that mercy is better. Christ has access to a power which Elijah did not have: the power to communicate divine grace to souls, the power to convert sinners, to save what was lost.

We live among Samaritans in our own time: those who will not welcome Jesus or His preaching; those who hate the natural order established by God and the truths taught by His Church. The unrestrained jubilation in the media over the recent decisions by the Supreme Court which reject all that is beautiful and good about natural marriage and the Sacrament of Matrimony is evidence enough that we live in the midst of modern Samaritans. That outcome was predictable.

And I’ll tell you what else is predictable: oppression of the Church, imprisonment of Her priests and bishops who will not cease to preach the Gospel. All this will be done in the name of “tolerance” by those who wield power against those whose only weapon is the voice of conscience. But believe me, free speech and freedom of religion will not be tolerated, so long as it is Catholics who are speaking and practicing their religion. Such outcomes seem unlikely in our current political situation, but Jesus has already told us how this story ultimately ends: The Church must be crucified like Her spouse before it can be raised with Him on the Last Day.

“What the world does not know is that every true disciple of Christ will give his or her life in witness to the beauty of chastity and marriage as established by God, to the sanctity of every human life, to the freedom to publicly worship the God Who made us.”

The world, for its part, thinks that its victory is inevitable. That religious indifferentism, abortion on demand, the enshrinement of impure and unnatural acts as human rights, are here to stay; that the extermination of any religion which claims to be true is only a matter of time. The world thinks that the end of the Church founded by Christ is drawing near and cannot be stopped. And we may be tempted like James and John to turn to God in frustration and say: “Lord, why don’t you destroy them, the way you destroyed the wicked in the Old Testament? Why don’t you send down fire from Heaven upon Hollywood or New York?” To such outbursts of righteous indignation, the Lord responds to us, too: You do not know of what Spirit you are. The Son of Man came to save souls, not to destroy. And how are these souls to be saved? By Christians laying down their life out of love for those who persecute us.

The world thinks it is on the brink of victory against Christ’s church: just a little more propaganda from the newspapers and television, just a few more years of reruns about abusive priests, and daily features on how happy people are to have two dads or two moms, and eventually everyone, Catholics included, will get with the program. But the world vastly underestimates the power of faith.

The Church is not a human institution whose doctrines can be changed, like other human institutions, by enough political pressure. What the world does not know is that every true disciple of Christ will give his or her life in witness to the beauty of chastity and marriage as established by God, to the sanctity of every human life, to the freedom to publicly worship the God Who made us. The Christian soul will die rather than deny the beautiful truths taught by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And, indeed, it may come to that, as it has many times in the history of the Church. For in our heart burns a love for the order of grace and nature which even death cannot extinguish: Love is stronger than death; and every Christian knows that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church founded by Jesus Christ.

In all these tempests of our times, we have the help of Mary, the Star of the sea. She will guide the Church safely through these treacherous times, as she has so many times before. I sometimes think to myself that on the day of Pentecost, as she prayed together with the disciples in the upper room, she spoke in the depths of her Immaculate Heart to her Son: “Son, shall we call down fire from Heaven to consume them?” To which Jesus responded: “Yes Mother, for you know of what Spirit you are.”

 

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