Niagara Falls is one of the wonders of creation. Scientists tell us that “3160” tons of water pour over the falls each second! Imagine that! Over six million pounds of water hurl over the top of the falls at a pace faster than we can breathe. That means there is enough water in that one small place to give almost everyone in our country a glass of water each second. And an amazing fact is that there are over “500” falls in the world larger than the one at Niagara.
Let’s contrast this, for a moment, with the scarcity of drinking water that existed in Puerto Rico in the days after the hurricane disaster. One reporter said that some people were rationing water at the rate of a half glass per day
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What a contrast of abundance and scarcity!
Had St. Paul visited Niagara Falls he may have used this image to help him describe the abundance of God. Writing to the Romans he was so taken up with the flow of God’s mercy that he could hardly contain himself (Romans 11:29-36).
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!”
God’s mercy pours over the world in a faster and more abundant rate than water pours over the highest falls in the world! And it never runs out.
Paul explained that,
“God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.”
Trying to find mercy through obeying the Mosaic laws did not work for the Jewish people. That ancient well finally started to dry up. But just as it was drying up, along came the eternal abundance of God’s love flowing through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This abundance covered not only the needs of God’s chosen people but also those of every Gentile in the world as well. Every second there is enough mercy flowing from the heart of Jesus to satisfy the thirst of every human being on earth thousands of times over.
The tragic story of the human race is that some prefer to remain in their state of “disobedience” rather than stand under the waterfall of God’s mercy. Respecting the freedom of each human being, God allows each of us to wallow in the pain of disobedience until we give in to Him and open ourselves to his redeeming mercy. Many of us choose a state of “water rationing” like some in Puerto Rico were forced to do, rather than opening the gate of humility and walking into the falls of God’s love.
In today’s gospel story we read that Jesus was at dinner with one of the leading Pharisees. He used this as a time to teach them about the abundance of God’s mercy (Luke 14:12-14).
“When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather…invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to pay you.”
The leading Pharisees were wealthy; they had an overflow of material blessings. Yet, like ourselves, they preferred to ration out their gifts to those who had the power to repay them someday. They wanted to make sure they covered themselves for the future, not realizing that if they were generous with their goods, God would cover them for the rest of their lives. Jesus told them to imitate the abundance of God who doesn’t ration out his mercy to a handful of privileged people. He wants to use the “privileged” as channels of mercy to the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and the outcasts of the world.
All of us deal with the issue of laboring under the fear that we will not be provided for. We hold on tightly to what we have. Deep inside we are not really convinced of the “depths of the riches” of God and the “Niagara Falls” of his mercy that keeps pouring out into our lives. We find ourselves slow to lead others to this falls of mercy and abundance that is available to everyone.
The more we immerse ourselves in the falls of God’s mercy, the more our hearts will begin to match the heart of God—the more we, ourselves, become “mini-falls” of God’s love to give life and hope to those among whom we live.
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the Lord hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not” (Ps 69:33-34).
