Fr Chris Vorderbruggen wrote, on Twitter:

You have a say in how God will judge you. Not because you can excuse your sins, change His law, or save yourself, but because Jesus warns that the measure you use against another human being will be measured back to you. Every merciless judgment should make us tremble.

The Lindsay Clancy case has made me contemplate this, not primarily because of the case itself, but because of what our reactions to it reveal about us. This is not about determining her legal responsibility or pretending that evil does not matter. The children matter. Truth matters. Justice matters. But this is about you and me.

I have watched people speak of her as a monster, a demon, evil incarnate, or a human being beyond redemption. No Christian has the authority to declare a living soul beyond the reach of God’s grace.

Let me make it perfectly clear: I believe that Mrs Clancy deserves to be found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. I give no credit to insanity or diminished capacity claims, and we need, all states need, a “Guilty but Insane” verdict possibility. Whether Miss Clancy was out of her mind or not, those three innocent children are still dead.

God is perfectly just and shows no partiality, but His judgment is not a mechanical checklist applied without knowledge of the person. He knows the heart, the mind, the freedom, the wounds, the light received, and the grace resisted. Jesus said that the servant who knew his lord’s will would be held more accountable than the one who did not: “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48).

And Christ tells us plainly that our own conduct toward others enters into our judgment: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:2).

In our Bible study group after Sunday Mass, we normally go over the readings for the following Sunday, and on September 13^th, our priest will be reciting Matthew 18:21-35, the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

That’s a rough one! But it occurred to me that yes, I have been wronged by people in the past, and I have wronged others as well. But the wrongs that I have endured almost all happened a decade or more ago, and yes, I still remember them, but not nearly as clearly or as often. What possible good would it do for me to dwell on them now? Because I have moved, the odds that I will ever again see anyone who has truly wronged me are vanishingly small.

Which brings me back to Mrs Clancy. It’s hard to forgive her for what she has done.

Pope Francis once said, “What I am going to say is not a dogma of faith but my own personal view: I like to think of hell as empty; I hope it is.” Certainly not dogma, but shouldn’t any Christian hope that Hell is empty?

This is one of those things in which we Catholics take comfort. Henry de Sandford, the Bishop of Rochester, said in a sermon in Sittingbourne, England, that he had a vision in which King Richard Cœur de Lion left Purgatory in March 1232, ascending to Heaven thirty-three years after his death. Surely if a warlord and King who had wrought so much death and destruction could completely purify his soul in just thirty-three years, I have a decent chance! 🙂

Alas! My Protestant friends might not see things that way, and that is, of course, their right; I shan’t argue with them.

To speak of a living human being as irredeemable is to speak the language of the accuser, not the Gospel. Satan cannot repent. He cannot seek mercy. His end is hell, and he wants us to believe that repentance is impossible, forgiveness is weakness, and some souls already belong to him.

But Christ came to save sinners.

So if you have joined in the hatred, stop. Repent. Pray for the children. Pray for Lindsay. Seek truth and justice without surrendering your soul to cruelty. We cannot save ourselves by being merciful, but Christ does not permit us to separate the mercy we ask from the mercy we give.

Yes, I want Mrs Clancy to be punished here on earth, not only for her crimes, but to send the message that crime will be punished. There are already stories on the internet — which raises the question of how accurate can they be? — of copycat killings of children by their mothers. Given that a majority of Americans see absolutely nothing wrong with prenatal infanticide, that some might embrace post-natal infanticide is hardly a surprise.

But I can also hope that Mrs Clancy winds up in Purgatory, not Hell, and has an eventual chance at redemption. After all, I haven’t led a perfect life myself, and I certainly hope that I get such a shot!