Responding to God’s Mercy with Mercy
Sr. Faustina Maria Ureña,
SCTJM
God created us to love
us and so that we may love Him in return. It is clear how much He
desires to pour out His mercy upon us, His beloved children. Now the
question that we must ask ourselves is what we are going to do with
all that we have received. What does justice call us to do? What
would be the most merciful and loving response? If we are honest
with ourselves we would respond that now it is our turn to be
merciful to others and give them the gift of knowing the merciful
love of God and to practice mercy towards them as it has been shown
and given to us without limits.
First I wanted to start the reflection by speaking of the Lenten
message that the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, has given to us for the
year 2010. The Holy Father focuses his message on revealing to us
what true justice is, what divine justice is and how we should be
attentive to practice it. The common definition of justice is “to
render every man his due”. But the Holy Father goes on to explain
that in reality what man needs most cannot be granted to him by law
or by distributive justice. What man needs most is love. We were
created for love and by Love and thus love cannot be bought or given
in material things. True love is a free gift given to me by another
who only desires my good. Therefore “in order to live life to the
full, something more intimate is necessary that can be granted only
as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love which only God
can communicate since He created the human person in His image and
likeness”. (BXVI, Lenten Message 2010).
If man has the love of God and this is what he most needs, then we
may ask why man is not satisfied? What creates injustices in the
world – can it be an exterior cause? The Holy Father gives us the
answer and tells explains to us that the root of injustice does not
come from external factors. Injustice is manifested in external
factors, but the root of injustice lies in the human heart, it is
the fruit of evil. The cause of injustice then truly comes from
within when we turn and affirm ourselves above and against others,
this is egoism (cf. Lent 2010); this is selfishness – the result of
original sin, where Adam and Eve chose to go against God’s command
and were seduced by Satan’s lie. This belief of self-sufficiency
closes our hearts to God and to others and their needs. Imagine if
God did the same to us, imagine if the Lord did not see our misery
and hear our cries, where would we be? But that is definitely not
our loving Father; He looks upon us with His eyes of mercy and sees
our misery. Knowing that we are not capable by our own strength to
pay for our transgressions, which are very great, He sends His Son
to pay for our debts and transgressions, “God…opens Himself in the
extreme, even to the point of bearing in Himself the ‘curse’ due to
man so as to give in return the ‘blessing ‘due to God.” (Lent 2010)
This divine justice is profoundly different from the way the world
defines justice. The divine justice of God could be seen as His
infinite Mercy, God pays the price for our sins over and beyond we
would ever expect. Man realizes before the Cross that he: “is not a
self-governing being, but has need of Another to be fully himself.
To be converted to Christ, to believe in the Gospel, means at bottom
this: to come out of the illusion of self-sufficiency to discover
and accept one's need- the need of others and from God the need for
His forgiveness and His friendship." (Lent 2010).
We need God and we need others. Realizing this truth leads us to a
path of conversion a profound conversion that leads us to enter into
the “’greatest’ justice, which is that of love. The justice that
recognizes itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor,
because it has received more than could ever have been expected”
(Lent 2010). You and I have received much more than we can ever
desire, we have been freed by the price of His Blood, we have been
given new life and been freed of the bondage of sin to the freedom
of the children of God. Knowing this, how can we not be moved to act
in mercy, to act in justice, towards those who are in need? And this
mercy and justice is a revolution of love of true love for God and
for neighbor. Pope Benedict XVI tells us “The Gospel of Christ
responds positively to the thirst for justice in man, but in an
unexpected and surprising way. Jesus does not propose a revolution
of a social or political type, but one of love, which he has already
realized with his cross and his resurrection. On these are founded
the beatitudes, which propose a new horizon of justice, initiated by
Easter, by which we can become just and build a better world.”
(Angelus 2/14/10)
To be merciful towards others is not a new spirituality or a
movement that has begun in our time. Jesus himself told us to be
merciful. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 6:36 we hear Jesus tell us:
“Be merciful, just as you Father is merciful”. Venerable John Paul
II reminds us in his encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, “Rich in
Mercy,” that: “Jesus Christ taught that man not only receives and
experiences the mercy of God, but that he is also called to practice
mercy toward others: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy.’ The Church sees in these words a call to action, and
she tries to practice mercy. All the beatitudes of the Sermon on the
Mount indicate the way of conversion and of reform of life, but the
one referring to those who are merciful is particularly eloquent in
this regard. Man attains to the merciful love of God, His mercy, to
the extent that he himself is interiorly transformed in the spirit
of that love towards his neighbor” (#14). The Church, our good
mother and teacher, has even given us ways to be merciful. She has
given us the works of mercy which we should implement in our lives.
The works of mercy are divided in two: the corporal works and the
spiritual works of mercy. The corporal works of mercy are: to feed
the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the
homeless, comfort the prisoners, visit the sick, and to bury the
dead.
We also have been given spiritual works of mercy to: teach the
ignorant, pray for the living and dead, correct sinners, counsel
those in doubt, console the sorrowful, bear wrongs patiently, and to
forgive wrongs willingly. There are many ways that we can practice
mercy with our neighbors.
In the Diary of St. Faustina, the Apostle of Mercy, to whom God
entrusted the task of spreading the message of His Divine Mercy to
the whole world, the Lord speaks to St. Maria Faustina and says: "I
demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for
Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere.
You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself
from it. I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your
neighbor: the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by
prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy,
and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a
soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.” (742)
There are three ways of practicing mercy that the Lord gave to St.
Faustina, the first was by deed- doing acts of concrete mercy as
described in the works of mercy, going out of our way to do a good
for their other and satisfy there need even if it means making
myself uncomfortable or having to give up my time and comfort. The
second way for us to practice mercy is by word- by forgiving those
who have hurt us in any way, by consoling those who need
consolation, by advising those who maybe going the wrong path, by
sharing the knowledge of God’s love and mercy to others. The third
way is by prayer- by bringing to the Lord the needs of so many, by
selflessly praying for the needs of the world and the conversion of
the world. We read in the Diary of St. Faustina: “Many souls ... are
often worried because they do not have the material means with which
to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires
neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is
within the grasp of every soul” (#317). Through our words and
prayers we practice spiritual mercy, and through prayer we reach out
to those and to places that we cannot physically reach.
The Lord also tells St. Faustina: “If a soul does not exercise mercy
somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of
judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for
themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My
judgment with their mercy" (1317).
The Lord has given us so much and desires for us to share His
goodness, love and mercy with others, not to be selfish with our
time, treasures and talents, which in reality we have only because
He has allowed us to have them and come directly from His graces. We
have been reflecting this morning on God merciful love for us and
how we are also to respond in mercy, it is not coincidental that we
have just begun the Lenten season. It is a time to discover God’s
immense love for us, but also to come out of ourselves, repent from
our sinful ways and grow closer to God. Knowing of God’s mercy and
being merciful ourselves will help us obtain those goals of personal
conversion and transformation that this time of Lent calls us to.
To end this reflection, I would like to pray with you the prayer
Saint Maria Faustina wrote asking the Lord that she may become
merciful:
"O
Most Holy Tinity! As many time as I breathe, as many times as my
heart beats, as many times as my blood pulsates through my body, so
many thousand time do I want to glorify Your mercy.
I
want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your
living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine
attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart
and soul to my neighbor.
Help
me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never
suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in
my neighbors’ souls and come to their rescue.
Help
me, O Lord, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to
my neighbors’ needs and not be indifferent to their pains and
moanings.
Help
me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never
speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and
forgiveness for all.
Help
me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good
deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon
myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.
Help
me, O Lord, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to
assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness (...)
Help
me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel
all the sufferings of my neighbor.
I
will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those
who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in
the most Merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in
silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me" (Diary # 163).
