Mercy Restores Our Inheritance
Day 13 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast
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‘My Heart overflows with Mercy for souls, especially for poor sinners. If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them, and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with Mercy.’ (367)
Jesus employed the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15) to convey the marvel of the Father’s Mercy. No matter how much we have squandered what is best and true about our lives, the Father restores in full our inheritance when we turn back to Him.
If you recall, the prodigal son had a good and generous father who gave his son an early inheritance. The son wanted a sexier life than the one down on the farm. So he left home and squandered everything, his dignity, his money—the good of his inheritance.
I did the same. Un-affirmed as a man, I left home to seek the confirmation of ‘false fathers’ in the sensual, unrestrained world of the west coast, circa the 1970’s. The trouble? Eroticizing other broken men did not resolve my identity crisis; in truth, it worsened it. Like the prodigal, my merriment turned to misery when I realized: ‘No-one actually gave me anything.’ (Lk. 15:16)
Whatever my father’s deficits were, he gave me an inheritance—my name, my manhood, a chance to represent his legacy well. And I squandered it by giving my masculinity to those with nothing to give in exchange. Mercy alone prompted the realization of such Misery; Mercy alone provoked a turning back towards home.
Repentance seemed so feeble at first. Still a long way off, more in shadow than light, we prodigals seem unlikely to reach home. That is where Mercy finds its richest expression. The Father runs to us! He sees our halting efforts to repent and closes the gap with His presence! His very being ensures our turning and restores to us our full inheritance.
In the first few months of my return home, I recall a hard night of sin and struggle followed by a haggard visit to a church the next morning. I felt raw and defiled. Still in shadow, I was approached by a rather strange prophetic woman who came up to me and asked: “Do you know what your name is? It is Andrew, which means ‘masculine one’. You are God’s masculine son.”
I choked down tears and entered in afresh to the worship service. I learned a key lesson that day. My Father does not merely forgive my sin. In exchange for it, He gives me back my full inheritance, which for me had everything to do with His full confirmation of my manhood.
‘While the son was still a long way off, the father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.’ (Lk. 15:20)
‘Father, grant us the clear understanding that Mercy grants us the full measure of our inheritance. Show us what we have squandered; grant us faith to believe You will restore what has been destroyed by sin. Grant us eyes to see that Mercy itself provokes our return home. We pray for those who are wandering far from their inheritance. Bring them home, O God, in the power of Mercy.’
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