Is Mercy Harsh?

Pondered a homily heard on Sunday about the Lord not pulling the weeds when evil has planted them. The priest said that that’s a function of God being not just the God of the good, but also the God and creator and lover of those who are evil. God has a responsibility we don’t and he wants them to come to salvation. Unlike the fallen angels, humans can still be rescued as long as they are alive. He said we think of ourselves as waiting on God, but it is God who waits on us - between now and the Judgement - for our response. 

We think of mercy as a good thing and it is but it’s...complicated? The famous book about C.S. Lewis and his short-lived wife was called “A Severe Mercy”. Sounds oxymoronic.  Flannery O’Connor has a line in one of her stories that goes, “even the mercy of the Lord burns.” A commentator said that the “divine is at least as terrifying as the demonic.” 

O’Connor’s biographer followed the roots of her fervent Catholicism and:

“...traces the outlines of a life marked by illness and suffering, but ultimately defined by an irrepressible joy and even hilarity. In her stories, and in her life story, Flannery O’Connor extends a hand in the dark, warning and reassuring us of the terrible speed of mercy....The biography’s title, ‘The Terrible Speed of Mercy’, hints at the connection between O’Connor’s characters’ violent experiences and their readiness to accept God’s grace."