Receive Mercy, Practice Mercy
On the eve of the Second World War, Jesus Christ, the Lord of Mercy, revealed to Sr. Faustina Kowalska a message of Divine Mercy. Our Lord requested Sr. Faustina to promote the establishment of the Feast of Divine Mercy universally in the Church. Our Lord went on to say that "Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the fount of my mercy." The message of Divine Mercy is not new, but the Lord instructed Sr. Faustina to convey its modern form to the world of our time, a time of deep suffering and loss, and in need of peace and hope.
God manifested an abundance of merciful love to us in the Bible. The message of the sacred scripture is about God's mercy. The Old and the New Testaments contain accounts of how God, who is rich in mercy, came to save his erring children from damnation through the merciful love of Jesus Christ. From the pierced side of Jesus on the Cross flows the redemptive water and blood. Jesus offered us the grace of his merciful love in the sacraments of mercy- Baptism and Eucharist: "This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood" (I Jn 5: 5).
He imparted the grace of this redemptive act of merciful love on his followers when he appeared to the apostles after his resurrection as St. John wrote: "Jesus came and stood in their midst…breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained' "(Jn 20). Our infidelity never limits God’s love; he wants to shed his healing rays of mercy on us when we become repentant and choose to love him and our neighbors. God of mercy and compassion who reaches out to us in mercy and calls us to hope in his merciful love. At the same time, he calls us at this time to share with others this hope by practicing mercy. I invite you at this time to believe in the gift of mercy that Jesus brings us on this Sunday of Divine Mercy. I encourage you to begin a lifetime devotion to praying daily the Chaplet of Divine mercy so…" that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that through this belief, you may have life in his name." Receive mercy, practice mercy.
O God, we have been washed in the living water of baptism and redeemed in the Blood of the Lamb, increase our faith in your everlasting and superabundance mercy.
Jesus, We Trust in You.In Christ,
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP