5th Sunday of Lent - Divine Mercy

 

Today, I would like to speak to you about mercy. The Latin word, “Misericordia” sheds light on the meaning of mercy. Miseri means “misery”. Cordia means heart. So Misericordia means a heart open to relieving the misery of another.

“Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip...and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”

If we have faith, we can see the face of Jesus in simple gestures of fraternal charity and works of mercy.

Our Lord said, “When I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was ill and in prison you visited me.”

There are also the spiritual works of mercy: the instruct the ignorant, to pray for the living and the dead, to counsel the doubtful, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive offenses, admonish the sinner. When we treat others with mercy, we are in fact treating Jesus, who is within them, with mercy. Jesus said, “What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to me.”

Therefore, for those who wish to see Jesus, can see Him in the disguise of the poor and in disguise of those who we treat others with mercy. The rude clerk at the store, the fan screaming obscenities at the referees, our friends, who irritate us, and our family members, who are selfish. We see their misery and respond with love and mercy.

Two children, who are brothers, are coloring in their own coloring book and one takes the blue crayon he was using. In turn, he gets angry and breaks his brother’s crayons. But, if we see Jesus in our brother, we will treat our brother will love and mercy by allowing him to use our crayon.

If a high school athlete thinks he is better than another player, who plays more often. To be merciful, he humbly accepts the coach’s choice, and prays for the other player, to do what is best for the team. If we see Jesus in the other athlete who gets to play more often than we do, we will treat them with love and mercy.

We can be merciful to our spouse, who refuses to clean up after his or herself, by picking up after them. We treat them with love and mercy.

During the time of Jesus, when He walked the face of the earth, people could see Him face to face. Don’t you wish you can actually see Jesus standing in front of you? Over the centuries saints saw Jesus through visions and apparitions.

St. Faustina, a polish nun, was born in 1905 and died at 33 years of age in 1938. She had a vision of Jesus in with one hand giving a blessing, and the other hand was resting on His chest and from His chest came two rays of light, one white and one red. Beneath the image of Jesus she saw the words, Jesus I Trust in You. He wanted the image to painted and publicly venerated.

In the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord said, “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”

At the Last Supper, Jesus inaugurates the New and Everlasting Covenant, the Holy Eucharist. Jesus instituted the sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist and Confession to be fonts of His mercy.

Through His death and resurrection He opened the door for the forgiveness of our sins. Through the sacrament of Baptism & Confession, the Lord God’s words through the prophet Jeremiah are fulfilled who said, “All, from least to the greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”

On the day Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to His apostles He instituted the Sacrament of Confession. He told the apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained” (John 20:22). And just before He ascended into heaven, He told His disciples, “Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The apostles were on a mission of mercy to relieve souls of their misery of sin. To baptize, washing away original sin and personal sin. After baptism, to forgive personal sins through Confession. And to feed the new Christians with His body and blood, the New and Everlasting covenant, when they offered Mass and gave them Holy Communion.

When I did hospital ministry, I baptized a dying elderly man. Through baptism, 80 years of his sins and the punishment due to his sins were all washed away in ocean of God’s mercy.

Bernard Nathanson was a Jewish abortionist, who admitted to doing 7,000 abortions. When he gave up abortions, and became Catholic, he was baptized, and all his sins and the punishment due to his sins were forgiven.

Once, I was went to visit a Catholic in a rehab center in Wichita. The patient wanted Confession and Holy Communion. She hadn’t been to Confession for 10 years. When as I was walking down the corridor to leave, a nurse told me another patient wanted to see a priest. I stopped by her room and she too went confession. She hadn’t been to Confession in 25 years. As I was leaving, a third patient saw me and hollered through her doorway for me to come to her room. She too went to Confession, and it was 40 years since she had gone to Confession. In a matter of 30 minutes, Jesus washed away a total of 75 years of sins. I was astonished at God’s mercy.

Jesus saw the misery of the soul of the 80 year old man who was dying. He saw the misery of the abortionist. He saw the misery of the three women in the rehab center and by His love, came to relieve their misery, by washing away their sins and giving them His body and blood in Holy Communion.

We should not be afraid to go to Confession. Sometimes we may think that we just keep doing the same sins over and over. Welcome to humanity. We are all like that. But, we keep coming to Jesus trusting in His mercy.

Sometimes, we may think our sins are too many and too great. I doubt any of you killed 7,000 people, like Bernard Nathanson and yet Jesus forgave all his sins and the punishment due to his sins in ocean of His mercy.

After the first 3 years of my priesthood, I heard 5,000 confessions. Now I have been a priest for 20 years. I have heard hundreds of thousands of confessions. The priest is just a dispenser of God’s mercy. We don’t judge those who come to Confession, we rejoice in Jesus forgiving them.

Jesus said to St. Faustina, “When approach the confessional, know this, that I myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of Mercy.” “Were a soul like a decaying corpse so that from a human standpoint, there would be no[hope of] restoration and everything would already be lost, it is not so with God. The miracle of Divine Mercy restores that soul in full. Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy! You will call out in vain, but it will be too late.”

Jesus told Saint Faustina, “I am love and mercy itself. ... Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. ... My mercy is greater than your sins, and those of the entire world. ... I let My Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come then with trust to draw graces from this fountain... The graces of My mercy are drawn by the means of one vessel only, and that is trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.”

Jesus also said, “I want the whole world to know my infinite mercy. I want to give unimaginable graces to those who trust in my mercy. Let not even the weak and very sinful fear to approach me, even if their sins be as numerous as all the sand of the earth all will be forgiven in the fathomless pit of my mercy.”

Jesus told Faustina He wanted to establish the Feast of Divine Mercy, the Sunday after Easter. He said, “I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and a shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.”

According to a priest from Poland, the graces we receive on Divine Mercy Sunday is as though we were to receive a “second baptism”. If we go to Confession sometime during Lent or up to and including Divine Mercy Sunday, we will receive that great grace of God’s mercy. It’s only one day a year, the Sunday after Easter. My friends, everyone please go to Confession before Easter. Allow Jesus to come in contact with the misery of your soul and to pour His unfathomable mercy in your heart.

Jesus wants us to receive His mercy and be merciful to others by opening our heart to their misery, by relieving that misery with an act of love and mercy. By doing so, we will see Jesus in everyone.

Today, look inside your soul and see its misery due your sins and cry out to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew me within me.” and by going to Confession, Jesus will make it new and clean.