Mercy - God invites us to a wonderful feast
Mercy is a cry of longing for God Who invites us to a Wonderful Feast.
God is merciful - this is the first and most important message and testimony of a person who has encounter God. Why?
From the very beginning of the history of revelation, God presented himself to us primarily as Merciful. Holy Father Francis, on the front page of the bull "Misericordiae vultus" announcing the year of mercy, reminds us that God already presents himself to Moses as " a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity" (Ex 34: 6). Of course, not only did he introduce himself as Merciful, but he really bestowed mercy. The wonderful text of Psalm 136, verse by verse, presents the entire work of creation and salvation as a work of God's Mercy. "Let us praise God, for His mercy endures forever." Who in his wisdom made the heavens, Who spread the earth over the waters, Who brought Israel out of Egyptian bondage, Who led his people through the desert, Who remembered us in our humiliation, Who gives food to all flesh. Each of the twenty-six such lines ends with a joyful cry: "For His mercy is forever."
God's mercy towards us, Pope Francis writes, "became alive, visible and reached its fullness in Jesus of Nazareth." What is the fullness of God's mercy shown to us in Jesus Christ? In the Way of the Cross devotion for generations, we confess that he " by your Holy Cross and Passion you have redeemed the world." And that is the truth. Sister Faustina, on the other hand, taught us to see more clearly that his passion and cross are already permeated with the light of resurrection. St. John Paul II, in his "Memory and Identity": "Saint Faustina contemplates Christ as a merciful God - not primarily on the cross, but rather as risen and glorified."
- What is mercy?
- It is love rendered to those who need help.St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) defined the virtue of "mercy" in his great Summa Theologiae (ST II-II.30.1) as "the compassion in our hearts for another person's misery, a compassion which drives us to do what we can to help him."
For St. Thomas, this virtue has two aspects: "affective" mercy and "effective" mercy. Affective mercy is an emotion: the pity we feel for the plight of another. In this respect, St. Thomas says, human mercy is grounded in a "defect" in our nature: the defect of human vulnerability to suffering. We feel pity for those who suffer because we too are subject to such miseries. Thus, our affective sympathy for others arises from our capacity for empathy. St. Thomas notes: "Those who reckon themselves happy and so powerful that no ill may befall them are not so compassionate" (II-II.30.2).
In simple words: mercy is to come with the aid to someone else's poverty, as if it happened to me. The poverty is different, not only material. Therefore, it is mercy not only to help the hungry, homeless or seriously ill, but also to give a hand to someone who has been tempted to commit suicide or is overwhelmed by unbearable loneliness, someone who has broken down after the death of a child, someone who has suffered some serious injustice. It will be true mercy to help your neighbor save a failing marriage, overcome the slavery of addiction, overcome the temptation to abortion or the foolish temptation to turn back for the harm suffered. Mercy is to shake hands with those who have been unjustly abused, who have doubted even the meaning of life, are religiously lost, but also those who have finally realized how terribly they have hurt their loved ones or other people. It is impossible to cover all the situations in which we may be called to show mercy.
The source of the fact that we are capable of showing mercy to one another is that we are created by the One who is Love and Mercy itself (cf. 1 Jn 4: 7-8). He did not stop loving us when we rebelled against Him, and we spoiled both the world and ourselves quite a bit with our sins. It was because of our sins that His love took the form of mercy. After all, God's mercy is simply the love that God shows to us as sinners. It is truly remarkable that although we are sinful, although some of us do not recognize God or even fight Him, love has not ceased to be the ultimate horizon of our lives, the ultimate source and goal of our humanity. After all, it is because He is Merciful that there is some capacity for mercy in each of us. Even the Lord Jesus himself said about it: "Be merciful as your Father is merciful" (Lk 6:26).
- What does the Holy Bible say about God's mercy?
- It is enough to notice how often in the Old Testament we read that God had mercy on us. " I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters," God declares to Moses his intention to liberate his people, " I know well what they are suffering. Therefore, I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians” (cf. Ex 3: 7-8). " In an outburst of wrath - God confides in the Book of Isaiah- moment I hid my face from you; But with enduring love I take pity on you "(cf. Is 54.8). And here is how God "explains" to Jonah why he did not punish those horrible goyim who lived in Nineveh: " You are concerned over the gourd plant which cost you no effort and which you did not grow; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot know their right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals?” (cf. Jon 4: 10-11).
One could cite a long time. But perhaps I will just quote the words of the wonderful Psalm 103: “Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger, abounding in mercy. He will not always accuse, and nurses no lasting anger; He has not dealt with us as our sins merit, nor requited us as our wrongs deserve. For as the heavens tower over the earth, so his mercy towers over those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. "
As for the New Testament, the Holy Father Francis aptly summarized the essence of his message on mercy in his bull "Misericordiae vultus" announcing the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. Its first sentence is: "Jesus Christ is the face of the Father's mercy". In short: Whoever wants to know what it means that our Father in heaven is merciful, let him have a good look at his Son, Jesus Christ, because "whoever sees me sees the Father also" (cf. Jn 14: 9). Well, Jesus showed his omnipotent love for us in a powerful way, but humbly inconceivably: he redeemed us on the cross, overcoming with love all the hatred with which the dark forces tried to overcome him. There has never been any doubt in the Church that our redemption was a greater work of God's Omnipotence than even the creation of heaven and earth. Therefore, God's omnipotence is most fully revealed in His mercy.
At the same time, the entire Gospel - all the deeds and words of Jesus - are one great message of mercy. Let us just look at the parable of the prodigal son - it tells not only that God is "irrational" in His mercy, but also that by accepting His mercy, we bring joy to Him and all His friends. When explaining this parable, it is worth noting more clearly the detail that the Father ordered a great celebration because of his son's return home. Immediately recall the words of the Lord Jesus in the parable of the lost sheep that "there will be more joy in heaven for one converting sinner than for the ninety-nine righteous who do not need conversion" (Lk 15: 7).
Saint John Paul II wrote the Encyclical Letter "God rich in mercy". In the teaching of Benedict XVI, it is the leitmotif, Francis gave us the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the cult of Divine Mercy develops with extraordinary intensity. Again, this 'trait', although God has no qualities because he is a whole that cannot be divided, has been categorically indicated among many, many other Attributes of the Most High - justice, omnipotence, beauty. Why Mercy? Yes - God is all Truth, all Good, all Justice, all Mercy. Each of his Attributes is identified with all of Him. This ancient teaching was confirmed by the Council of Florence in 1441. Is mercy the most important quality? Perhaps for our generation, which has become so secularized that it largely does not understand even the meaning of the word "mercy". But having distanced ourselves from God, the more we need His mercy and we miss him (at least subconsciously). St. John Paul II, in the last fragment of the encyclical "Dives in misericordia" repeated this when he came to the sanctuary in Łagiewniki in 1997.
Our mercy is marked by various shadows and even distortions. The Lord Jesus has already asked us to test ourselves, whether we do works of mercy only so that people can see us (cf. Mt 6,1). The builders of capitalism fought against charity, arguing that charity habituated the poor to passivity, laziness and cunning. The socialists, on the other hand, fought against what they called philanthropy, which they believes to be the fig leaf with which the rich want to hide their injustices. It is a great mercy, they said ironically, to steal an apple and then give away an apple core.
Karol Hubert Rostworowski wisely responds to these accusations in the drama "Mercy". There, the author brings out the worst that happens in connection with exercising mercy - and the hypocrisy of many who do it, and the soulless comfort and cynicism of many to whom mercy is rendered, and the inauthenticity of many who preach it. Faced with such grave accusations, Mercy was put on trial and sentenced to crucifixion. On the left side of Mercy, the Rich Man was crucified, on the right - the Preacher. It turned out then that the world had become completely inhuman and turned into a bundle of mutual hostility. Fortunately, the drama unfolds and the terrible world without mercy turned out to be just a warning. Since the world of perfect mercy, that is the final resurrection of Mercy, is just a promise - viewers of the drama are relieved to learn that there will still be a lot of mercy in our world. Yes, imperfect, tainted with human weakness and even sin, but still mercy. And it was precisely from this imperfect mercy that hospices, hospitals, and eateries for the poor were created in the Christian world. Today it is the work of Caritas and thousands of initiatives for the poor and the weak. However, let us try to recognize and remove various weaknesses in exercising mercy. In other words, let us try to make the mercy we do as real as possible. After all, we have obtained mercy ourselves, so let us be merciful - as honestly as possible. Only on this basis can we trust that we ourselves will also receive the final mercy on the Day of Judgment.
Departing from God and reacting to it - is this why the devotion to Divine Mercy, which is present all over the world, is so rapidly developing - in capitals and villages of Latin America, Papua, New Guinea or Africa, America, Europe. It is a cry of longing for God that is spontaneously coming out of people's hearts. Especially in a world where people try to remove faith in God from public spaces, raise doubts about his existence, and distort consciences. Longing for God - this is what underlies such an extraordinary interest in the message conveyed by St. Faustina, the popularity of the Image "Jesus, I trust in You!", Chaplets of Mercy, etc.
in the parable of the prodigal son, we forget that on the occasion of the revelation of the Father's mercy, He made a great feast. We need to celebrate God's mercy, we have a hint in the Gospel itself, so the extraordinary Day – The Feast of Divine Mercy will be an occasion for this celebration. Somehow this is identified with what the Holy Father Francis wrote in the exhortation "Evangelii gaudium": "How good to return to Jesus when we are lost! I repeat once again with emphasis: God never tires of forgiving; we are tired of asking for mercy. The one who encouraged us to forgive seventy-seven times gives us an example: He forgives seventy-seven times. Each time he takes us back in his arms. No one can deprive us of the dignity that this infinite and unshakable love gives us. He allows us to lift our heads and start over with a tenderness that will never let us down and can always bring joy back to us.Let us not run away from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never consider ourselves defeated, no matter what happens. Nothing can be greater than His life to keep us moving forward.”
It goes without saying that the celebration is somehow the logical culmination of reconciliation with God. But notice: Receiving God's forgiveness opens the way for us to Holy Communion. And what else is Holy Communion if not a celebration of Mercy, an invitation by the Father to a Wonderful Feast?!
The Divine Mercy Novena - Ninth Day:
Today bring to Me SOULS WHO HAVE BECOME LUKEWARM, and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. These souls wound My Heart most painfully. My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out: 'Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will.' For them, the last hope of salvation is to run to My mercy.
Most compassionate Jesus, You are Compassion Itself. I bring lukewarm souls into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart. In this fire of Your pure love, let these tepid souls, who, like corpses, filled You with such deep loathing, be once again set aflame. O Most Compassionate Jesus, exercise the omnipotence of Your mercy and draw them into the very ardor of Your love, and bestow upon them the gift of holy love, for nothing is beyond Your power.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon lukewarm souls who are nonetheless enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Father of Mercy, I beg You by the bitter Passion of Your Son and by His three-hour agony on the Cross: Let them, too, glorify the abyss of Your mercy. Amen.
Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet