In the morning prayer of the Divine Office, we began with Psalm 36: “Sin speaks to the heart of the sinner in the depths of his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes. He so flatters himself in his mind that he knows not his guilt… all wisdom is gone. He plots the defeat of goodness..” 

Being Irish Catholic and a product of Catholic elementary and high school, there is no chance that I do not know my guilt. One can only hope that there is a residue of wisdom, Given that personally I am a big fan of goodness,  plotting its defeat is not something that is in the cards. I am not saying I don’t bruise goodness from time to time, but it was never part of a large insidious plot.

It’s one thing to have a righteous fear of God and only bruise goodness. But it is quite another thing to understand “how precious is [God’s] love.” The Psalm describes God’s love for us as a shelter, a refuge, and compares that love to a fountain fullness in which the riches of the house of the Lord pour out into the world. One of those rich streams is the Mercy of God. Despite all the “bruising,” God’s mercy is there for me.

Well does the morning prayer psalm end with an Antiphon that prays “Give us true knowledge of your mercy.”  If we truly possessed the fullness of knowledge of the mercy of God, then we would possess true Wisdom. We forever-feeling-guilty Irish Catholics would do well to pair the memory and burden of our sins, to the riches of the Mercy of God, ever ready to come to us in the Sacraments – ever ready to be mindful of what a beyond-amazing gift we have received.