God's Abounding Forgiveness and Mercy (Ch. 13, Qst. 1)

King Manasseh became king of Israel and Judah after the death of his father, Hezekiah. Manasseh was pure evil destroying every good thing his father had built up; building up high places, bringing back idols, and burning his own sons as sacrifices to pagan gods. This man was bad news.

However, all evil and wicked actions have reactions/consequences. In the case of Manessah, the consequences came in the event of the Assyrians swiftly attacking and conquering Jerusalem, carrying off Manessah in chains. This is when the evil king took a turn for the better and something amazing happened. Having lost all hope, the distressed Manessah humbled himself before God and prayed to him. God received him and brought him back to Jerusalem.

We can see in the course of Manessah’s action and God’s response the sacrament of reconciliation, which is the act of human beings asking God to forgive them after committing a fault. Manessah knew that he had lived a life of profound evil and placed himself in God’s hands, asking God to forgive him the faults he had committed. God listened to him and returned him to Jerusalem where Manessah tried to straighten out the mistakes he had made previously. He got rid of the foreign cults and the pagan altars and made sacrifices of Thanksgiving in the Temple. As a result of his conversion, he reigned over Israel and Judah longer than any king had before him.

The tie between Manessah’s turning to God a thoroughly evil kingship and the sacrament of reconciliation holds a strong meaning for us as Christians. Because of God’s unlimited love for us, if we detest and are profoundly sorry for our sins, God will forgive us our faults. This does not mean, however, that we can do anything we want, because of the knowledge that God will love us anyways and forgive us whenever necessary. I believe that would be considered taking advantage of God’s mercy. We are such sinners and already do not deserve God’s forgiveness as is. As humans, it is impossible to reach heaven without God. Testing God’s love for us is very treacherous, because God could unexpectedly end our lives.

Just as Manessah repented, we should also repent and we should do it as soon as we can and we shouldn’t wait until the last minute, because we never know when the end of our story will come. God is ready to forgive each and every one of us, no matter how grave the matter. In order for this to take place, we as God’s children need to place each moment of every day of our lives in His hands.