Today we turn our
attention to the aspect of Divine Mercy centered on all sinners afraid to ask for forgiveness.
Scripture for
meditation: Hosea 11:8-9How can I give you up, o Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! … My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come to destroy.
Scripture for
reflection: Luke 15:20-24
“With that he set off for his father’s house. While he
was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was deeply moved.
He ran out to meet him, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. The son
said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against God and against you; I no longer deserve
to be called your son.’ The father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the
finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet.
Take the fatted calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate because this son of
mine was dead and has come back to life. He was lost and is found.’ Then the
celebration began.”
Blessed John Paul
II tells us in Dives in Misericordia: Mercy – as Christ has presented it in
the parable of the prodigal son – has the interior form of the love that in the
New Testament is called agape. This
love is able to reach down to every prodigal son, to every human misery, and
above all to every form of moral misery, to sin. When this happens, the person
who is the object of mercy does not feel humiliated, but rather found again and
“restored to value.”The father first and foremost expresses to him his joy that
he has been “found again” and that he has “returned to life.” This joy
indicates a good that has remained intact; even if he is a prodigal, a son does
not cease to be truly his father’s son. It also indicates a good that has been
found again, which in the case of the prodigal son was his return to the truth
about himself (no. 6) (Divine Mercy, A
Guide from Genesis to Benedict XVI, Robert Stackpole, DTD, Marian Press, 2010).
Christ revealed to
St. Faustina: I desire trust from My creatures. Encourage souls to place great
trust in My fathomless mercy. Let the weak, sinful soul have no fear to
approach me, for even if it had more sins than there are grains of sand in the
world, all would be drowned in the unmeasurable depths of My mercy (1059). Oh,
if sinners knew My mercy, they would not perish in such great numbers. Tell
sinful souls not to be afraid to approach Me; speak to them of My great mercy
(1396). Do not lose heart in coming for pardon, for I am always ready to
forgive you (1488).
St. Faustina tells
us: All grace flows from mercy, and the last hour abounds with mercy for
us. Let no one doubt concerning the goodness of God; even if a person’s sins
were as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone
is necessary: that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so
little, to let in a ray of God’s merciful grace, and then God will do the rest.
But poor is the soul who has shut the door on God’s mercy, even at the last
hour. It was just such souls who plunged Jesus into deadly sorrow in the Garden
of Olives (1507, The Diary of St.
Faustina).
My thoughts: I
knew a man who boasted that he was so confident of God’s love for him that he
could and would do whatever pleased him in this world, for he would just say he
was sorry before he died and he would be “straight” in the eyes of God. I don’t
think that is what God is saying to us in these passages. Jesus is revealing to
us His unfathomable mercy for those sinners, for all of us, who truly are sorry
for what we have done, and may be afraid that forgiveness could not possibly be
given. No sin is too great, no deed too terrible for God to forgive. That is
why He died for us, to place all sin on the Cross and win our salvation. We do,
however, have to be serious about our sorrow for the sin. We do have to mean it
when we say we will avoid the near occasion of sin and we must be willing to
make an honest effort to keep ourselves from repeating the same sins over and
over. We must also believe that when we come to the Father as a prodigal son,
lifting our arms to Him in repentance, He will embrace us and welcome us back.
God’s mercy knows no limits.
The Divine Mercy
Novena
Seventh Day: Today
bring to Me the Souls who especially venerate and glorify My Mercy*, and immerse them in My mercy. These
souls sorrowed most over my Passion and entered most deeply into My spirit.
They are living images of My Compassionate Heart. These souls will shine with a
special brightness in the next life. Not one of them will go into the fire of
hell. I shall particularly defend each one of them at the hour of death.
Most Merciful Jesus, whose Heart is Love Itself, receive into the
abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who particularly
extol and venerate the greatness of Your mercy. These souls are mighty with the
very power of God Himself. In the midst of all afflictions and adversities they
go forward, confident of Your mercy; and united to You, O Jesus, they carry all
mankind on their shoulders. These souls will not be judged severely, but Your
mercy will embrace them as they depart from this life.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls who glorify and venerate Your greatest attribute, that of Your fathomless mercy, and who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. These souls are a living Gospel; their hands are full of deeds of mercy, and their hearts, overflowing with joy, sing a canticle of mercy to You, O Most High! I beg You O God: Show them Your mercy according to the hope and trust they have placed in You. Let there be accomplished in them the promise of Jesus, who said to them that during their life, but especially at the hour of death, the souls who will venerate this fathomless mercy of His, He, Himself, will defend as His glory. Amen. Say the Chaplet of Mercy.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls who glorify and venerate Your greatest attribute, that of Your fathomless mercy, and who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. These souls are a living Gospel; their hands are full of deeds of mercy, and their hearts, overflowing with joy, sing a canticle of mercy to You, O Most High! I beg You O God: Show them Your mercy according to the hope and trust they have placed in You. Let there be accomplished in them the promise of Jesus, who said to them that during their life, but especially at the hour of death, the souls who will venerate this fathomless mercy of His, He, Himself, will defend as His glory. Amen. Say the Chaplet of Mercy.
*The text leads one to conclude that in the first prayer directed
to Jesus, Who is the Redeemer, it is "victim" souls and
contemplatives that are being prayed for; those persons, that is, that
voluntarily offered themselves to God for the salvation of their neighbor (see
Col 1:24; 2 Cor 4:12). This explains their close union with the Savior and the
extraordinary efficacy that their invisible activity has for others. In the
second prayer, directed to the Father from whom comes "every worthwhile
gift and every genuine benefit, "we recommend the "active" souls,
who promote devotion to The Divine Mercy and exercise with it all the other
works that lend themselves to the spiritual and material uplifting of their
brethren.
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