There is no limit to God’s mercy. He never rejects us because of our sins, He never grows weary of our infidelities, never
refuses to forgive us. He is always ready to forgive our offenses and to repay our ingratitude with graces. He never
reproaches us for our offenses, even when we fall again immediately after being forgiven. He is never angered by our
repeated failures or weakness in the practice of virtue, but always stretches out His hand to us, wanting to help us.
When men condemn us, God shows mercy to us; He absolves us and sends us away justified, as Jesus did with the woman taken in adultery. “Go, and now sin no more”(Jn.8:11). By His words and example, Jesus has shown us the inexhaustible depths of God’s mercy. Let us think of the prodigal son, the lost sheep, Magdalene, and the good thief. But He has also said to us: “Be ye therefore merciful, as Your Father also is merciful” (Lk.6:36).
How far does our mercy go? How much compassion do we have for the faults of others? The measure of our mercy toward our neighbor will be the measure of God’s mercy toward us, for Jesus said, “With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Mt. 7:2) God does not require us to be sinless but that He may shower upon us the fullness of His mercy, but He does require us to be merciful to our neighbor, and moreover, to be humble. In fact to be sinners is not enough to attract divine mercy; we must also humbly acknowledge our sins and turn to God with complete confidence.
“What pleases God,” said St. Therese of Lisieux, ” is to see me love my littleness and poverty; it is the blind hope I have in His mercy. This is my sole treasure.” This is the treasure which supplies for all our miseries,
weaknesses, relapses and infidelities, because by means of this humility and confidence we shall obtain the divine Mercy. And with this at our disposal, how can our wretchedness discourage us?
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene (Divine Intimacy)
Talk, talk, talk. We are full of big, fine and wonderful talk about love, but it seems we do very little to share that love when people are most in need of it. It seems to more often than not, come down to talk, talk, talk. I like Bl. Mother Teresa, who lived a life of loving, imperfect sinner though she may have been.
The abused and the abandoned need that living love. Right now. It’s too easy to tell them to find it in the Blessed Sacrament or in prayer. It’s too easy to blame, and shame them further, for being sad, or unhappy, or ashamed, by all the abuse they have experienced, all the harm they have endured. Jesus is Incarnate Wisdom, true enough, and truly and really present in the Blessed Sacrament. The abused and abandoned and gravely harmed need that living love. Words and high ideals have their place in the development and proper formation of souls, but they are not to be used as weapons to further harm and shame those who suffer in this sinful life and world.
There are so many souls in this world that have been gravely harmed, caught up in sins and the filth and the lies of this world. Those souls that have suffered the consequences of the sins of the world, can not be dismissed, can not be told simply to forgive. We must, in order for forgiveness to be actively healing, seek out and ask for that forgiveness, especially from those whom we have so ruthlessly and self-righteously mangled.
Don’t tell the abused to simply let it go. Acknowledge and share in their suffering. Ask their forgiveness. Seek their forgiveness. Be humble and confess all the grave harm we have done to them by failing to live truly loving lives and adhering truly and lovingly to the commandments of God. We have become a society of manipulators. Mangling our own souls and the souls of our victims, of whom Jesus Christ is the Head.
Yes, there is a crisis in the Church. It is a crisis concerning Truth. And our manipulation and mangling of Truth. And the Truth is always our victim, our outcast, our shamed and blamed scapegoat. And we crucify Him over and over again and again in his body, as we mangle and manipulate words and ideas.
Ave Maria. And on earth peace to men of good will.