This post from New Wave Feminists about AHA brought to mind a subject that's been in my head for some time.
Some of us grew up without anyone ever preaching the whole word of God. We got all the mushy doctrine. Heavy on "conscience" and "forgiveness", light on truth.
When we finally learn about the Faith and what it really entails, some people become resentful of the Church, in a paradoxical way. Whenever people preach about "mercy", what they hear is "license to sin" or "cheap grace."
The thing is, many times in the past, "mercy" was an excuse to overlook sin and injustice. How often have people told us to forget the fight for unborn children, and to "not judge" women?
And so, many conservative Catholics-- and conservative Christians-- have developed a spontaneous reflex of cringing at the word "mercy".
It's an understandable reaction, given the flaky catechism many of us received.
But we should not fall into the opposite vice: of being so demanding of justice, so gung-ho that people pay for their crimes, that we can't forgive and overlook, the way the Lord forgives and overlooks.
People think that in being merciful to post-abortive women, we're betraying the Truth, and betraying Our Lord.
It's the opposite.
How did the Lord behave towards us in our Sin? He had every right to cast us into Hell for our first actual sin.
Did he do that? No. He overlooked that sin, precisely so he could save us.
Isn't that wonderful? He died for our sins so this would not have to happen.
So why pick on post-abortive women, especially those who've joined the pro-life movement? God had far more reason to condemn us than we to condemn pro-life women?
It's not betraying God to not exact Justice, it's emulating God, because he paid the price for us so that he wouldn't have to exact a price he knew we couldn't pay on our own.
There's no betrayal to God in lookin at a post-abortive woman and seeing a woman saved by grace instead of a murderer.
We're all God's murderers.
Literally.
Just remember that.
