Blog No. 61:  

Mercy Beyond Measure

I was listening to Bishop Barron’s sermon about God’s mercy.  

We were taught that taking one’s own life is a mortal sin because only God has the authority to give and take life. Following that reasoning, some might conclude that Judas could not be saved. But Bishop Barron reminds us of the Church’s teaching: God’s mercy is beyond anything we can imagine. Even a single tear of genuine repentance can open the way to His forgiveness.  

Therefore, we cannot presume to know the eternal destiny of anyone — whether Judas or those who take their own life. God alone knows, and His judgment is always tempered by mercy.

I am living proof of God’s mercy — not in the shadow of despair, not in the context of taking one's own life,  but in the story of a broken vow. I once stood at the altar, bound in a marriage that later unraveled into annulment. By human reckoning, God could have said, “You made your bed, now lie in it.” He could have left me to reap the whirlwind of my own choices.  

Yet mercy spoke louder than judgment. Like a prisoner set free, I was led out of the wilderness of regret. God did not leave me chained to the past; He parted the waters of my sorrow and carried me through, as if I were walking out of Egypt itself.  

His mercy was the lifeline when I was sinking, the light at the end of the tunnel, the hand that pulled me from quicksand. Where I saw only failure, He wrote redemption. Where I felt trapped, He opened doors wide as a spacious place.  

I am not merely a survivor of my choices — I am a product of His boundless mercy, a living testimony that God’s grace can turn ashes into beauty and wrong turns into new beginnings.