I want Mercy rather than Sacrifice
The Easter season can be compared to a kind of triptych: its preparation is Lent, which lasts over 6 weeks; then for the whole week (feasts and octaves) we enjoy the celebration of the Resurrection; finally, for the next few weeks we celebrate Easter time until the Solemnity of Pentecost. The first week after Easter is especially festive. He is so privileged that he does not allow any holidays. It focuses as an octave on the mystery of the Lord Jesus' resurrection. The readings are chosen to remind us of the individual encounters of the Risen One with his disciples and the testimony that these disciples gave to the world to this fundamental truth of faith.
In line with the Church's wishes, on the Easter Vigil and the Holy Night, catechumens are baptized (and the other sacraments of Christian initiation). The resurrection of the Lord is accompanied by the resurrection of those who have been in sin. The faithful received it through confession and forgiveness, and catechumens through the water of baptism. The neophytes then received white robes as a symbol of the innocence they received at baptism. Dressed in these robes, the neophytes went from the baptismal chapel to the church to participate in the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass together with the entire Christian community as full members. Every day in these robes they came to the church to take part in the Holy Eucharist. They were then initiated during specially addressed homilies on the sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist (mystagogical sacraments). This was the case until Saturday, when they folded their white garments and gave them to the celebrant so that they could also serve others.
In one of the apparitions that Saint Faustina Kowalska received, the Lord Jesus expressed the wish that White Sunday would also be celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday. This Sunday actually closes the cycle of our redemption. The Lord Jesus, through his resurrection, closes his saving activity on earth in the sense of an historical event. We know that the work of salvation continues and will last for all times, until the end of the world. The truth about God's mercy is present throughout the history of mankind.
In Paradise, God gives desperate first people the hope of salvation and liberation from the power of Satan. The human race will receive so much that the Church will not hesitate to put her priests in the mouth in the Exultet hymn: "O happy fault!". When Cain murdered his brother, he heard a voice saying, "Where is your brother, Abel?" And yet God gives him time to reflect and repent. Therefore, he even receives a mysterious mark, so that no one would dare to touch him. God's command to the first people of Paradise was being carried out: "Be fruitful and multiply so that you may populate the earth."
Unfortunately, human sins also multiplied rapidly - so much so that God "regretted having created men on earth and was sorry." When the exhortations did not help, he sent a flood. Only righteous Noah and his family survived. The most beautiful is the fragment of the Bible in which Abraham "bargains" with God for the fate of the cities condemned to destruction for sins that happened there. For the righteous Abraham, God was willing to forgive doomed cities if even ten righteous men were among them. But there were not even so many of them there - and the cities were destroyed so much that there is no trace of it. In the Old Testament we can find many other stories about God's mercy.
But it turned out best on earth in the Son of God, the Incarnate Word. The Evangelists summarize all his public activities in this one sentence: "He has done everything well." Christ showed the greatest mercy to sinners. For he knew that they were exposed to the greatest danger - to eternal damnation. That is why he surrounded them with such tender love. The Lord Jesus taught: "Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. Go and try to understand what it means: I want mercy rather than sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." The parables of Christ about the Good Samaritan, about the prodigal son or about the lost sheep - are true masterpieces of world literature, but at the same time tangible evidence of how human the Lord Jesus was. He sealed mercy for mankind with the act of the highest sacrifice, by a shameful death on the cross.
Christ's messianic message and all activities among people end with the cross and resurrection. “In His resurrection Christ has revealed the God of merciful love, precisely because He accepted the cross as the way to the resurrection - writes John Paul II in the encyclical Dives in Misericordia. And it is for this reason that-when we recall the cross of Christ, His passion and death-our faith and hope are centered on the Risen One: on that Christ who "on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, . . .stood among them" in the upper Room, "where the disciples were, ...breathed on them, and said to them: 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (DM 8)
Until Tomorrow
fr. george
Novena to The Divine Mercy - Eighth Day:
Today bring to Me THE SOULS WHO ARE DETAINED IN PURGATORY, and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. Let the torrents of My Blood cool down their scorching flames. All these souls are greatly loved by Me. They are making retribution to My justice. It is in your power to bring them relief. Draw all the indulgences from the treasury of My Church and offer them on their behalf. Oh, if you only knew the torments they suffer, you would continually offer for them the alms of the spirit and pay off their debt to My justice.
Most Merciful Jesus, You Yourself have said that You desire mercy; so I bring into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls in Purgatory, souls who are very dear to You, and yet, who must make retribution to Your justice. May the streams of Blood and Water which gushed forth from Your Heart put out the flames of Purgatory, that there, too, the power of Your mercy may be celebrated.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls suffering in Purgatory, who are enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. I beg You, by the sorrowful Passion of Jesus Your Son, and by all the bitterness with which His most sacred Soul was flooded: Manifest Your mercy to the souls who are under Your just scrutiny. Look upon them in no other way but only through the Wounds of Jesus, Your dearly beloved Son; for we firmly believe that there is no limit to Your goodness and compassion. Amen.
Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet