Ave Maria Meditations
From In Conversation with God by Fr. Francis Fernandez:
The need to turn always to the mercy of our Lord. Meditating on his life so as to learn to be merciful to others.
(The Gospel for Wednesday of the first week of Advent speaks about Jesus curing many people and then also feeding them because he feel sorry for all these people.)
To learn how to be merciful we must fix our eyes on Jesus, who comes to save that which was lost; he does not come to crush the broken reed or to extinguish the wick that still smolders, but to take upon himself to wretchedness and save us from it, and to share in their misfortune with those who suffer and are in need. Each page of the gospel is an example of the divine mercy.
We should meditate on the life of Jesus because Jesus is a summary and compendium of the story of the divine mercy… Jesus is moved to the heart by human suffering. The mercy of God is the essence of the whole history of salvation, the reason for all his saving acts.
Our Lord’s special compassion and merciful welcome for repentant sinners. Going to the sacrament of mercy. Our behavior towards others.
In a special way, God shows His mercy towards sinners: He pardons them their sins. The Pharisees often criticized Him for this. He rebuts their criticisms saying: it is not those who are well who have need of a physician but those who are sick. We who are sinners are sick of soul and need to have recourse many times to Divine Mercy…
God has placed a condition on our obtaining his compassion and mercy for our offenses and weaknesses. The condition is that we should have a heart of compassion for those around us. If Christ, Who knows the interior of man, emphasizes this compassion, this means that it is important for our whole attitude towards the suffering of others. Therefore one must cultivate this sensitivity of heart, which bears witness to compassion towards a suffering person.
The works of mercy.
Throughout sacred Scripture there is an urgency on God’s part to see that man also have stirrings of sympathy and deep seeded feelings of mercy, that they to have this compassion for another’s misery which moves us to remedy it if at all possible. Our Lord promises us happiness if we have a merciful heart towards others, and gives assurance that we will obtain mercy from God in the same measure as we ourselves show it to our fellow man.
Our attitude of compassion and mercy must, in the first place, be shown towards those who are near us: our family, our friends, our close associates and to those who God has placed at our side, and then to those beyond who are in most need…
Alongside the so-called material works of mercy, we should also carry out those that are spiritual. In the first place it is our privilege and duty to correct those in error with our advice when the opportunity arises and charitably, without causing offence. Secondly, it is to teach those who don’t know, especially with regard to ignorance of religion, an ignorance which is the great enemy of God, that increases daily in alarming proportions, so that catechesis has become a work of mercy of prime importance and urgency.
Next comes giving council to the doubting, honestly and with the right intention, so as to help them on their way to God. Then follows the consolation of the afflicted, by sharing their sorrow and encouraging them to recover their happiness in their supernatural understanding of the pain they suffer. Pardon those who have offended us, promptly and as often as necessary, without giving excess of importance to the offense. We are advised too, to give help to the needy, carrying out this service generously and joyfully and, finally, we have to pray for the living and the dead, feeling ourselves linked in a special way through the communion of saints to those we owe most because of family relationships, friendships, etc.
Let us call down the divine mercy on ourselves who are so much in need of it. Let us also ask for it to be extended to our generation through Mary, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. Now that the feast of the Immaculate Conception is so near, our confident reliance on the Virgin Mary will, if we have recourse to her, be more continuous and more loving.
