Reflection: Divine Mercy Novena - Day 9

Before our wonderful cantors led us in singing the chaplet in day nine of the Divine Mercy Novena, I offered the following brief reflection:

___________________________

The other day, after writing a few words about an event in the Old Testament, I was reading a bit from St. Faustina’s Diary and was struck by what Jesus told her.

“You are a witness of My mercy. You shall stand before my throne forever as a living witness to My mercy” [# 417]

and

“You are My delightful resting place; My Spirit rests in you [# 346].

Relating this to the Old Testament, I couldn’t help but apply it to the Patriarchs, Prophets, and others who were recipients of Divine Mercy.

In the Old Testament, we encounter some truly remarkable lives, lives bathed in God’s mercy. Consider the twins, Jacob and Esau: one, along with their mother, conniving and deceitful, and the other, arrogant and foolish. And yet Jacob, with all his blemishes and sins, becomes one of the great patriarchs of our Judeo-Christian tradition.

Perhaps Jacob’s sons offer us one of the best examples of sinfulness in need of mercy and forgiveness, when out of envy they plan the murder of their brother, Joseph, and eventually sell him into slavery [Gen 37].

We encounter this again and again. Consider David, the great king who also happened to be an adulterer and murderer [2 Sam 11] and David’s son, King Solomon, who neglected God's gift of wisdom, became enamored of foreign women (quite a few of them, actually), and turned to idolatry [1 Kgs 11]. Remarkably, these two kings, perhaps along with Hezekiah, Josiah, and a few others, were probably the best of the bunch.

So…What are we to think?

Well, in truth, we should thank God for the gift of the flawed men and women who fill the pages of God's Word. What a gift they are to us! In these broken, oh-so-human lives we come face to face with God's enduring forgiveness. We come face to face with God's mercy.

If you worry about your family being mildly dysfunctional, just take a closer look at Abraham's, or Isaac's, or Jacob's. Despite all their problems, all their sinfulness, God's mercy just overflows into their lives. And how good it is that God wants to shower you and those you love with that same outpouring of mercy.

Brothers and sisters, without God's mercy, we would be - what's the best word? - doomed!

Without God's mercy our sins would overwhelm us.

Without God's mercy, there would be no Incarnation, no redemptive sacrifice on the Cross, no Resurrection to offer us the hope of eternal life.

Without God's mercy there is no salvation; for the Incarnation is the supreme act of mercy, the supreme act of our merciful, loving God.

He becomes one of us, He lives with us, He teaches us, He forgives us, He heals us, He loves us, and He suffers and dies for us. He does all of this for our salvation. He does all of this so we can be healed.

That's right. Without God's mercy there can be no healing. And we are all, every single one of us, in need of healing, aren't we? What about you?

Are you in pain, physical pain, the kind that can scream at you, causing you to question God's love?

Do you suffer from illness, one of those devastating, fear-laden illnesses that makes prayer so very hard?

Have you been attacked by depression, or another spirit-draining affliction that seems to attack your very humanity?

Perhaps you are faced with a combination of many things, some little, some not so little, that overwhelm you and your ability to deal with them?

Or maybe you are simply afraid, afraid of the future, afraid of the unknown, afraid of death, and need the consolation of the gift of faith.

What kind of healing do you seek? What do I seek? But what about the healing we actually need? You see, brothers and sisters, I don't know the fulness of God’s plan for me, and I certainly don’t know God's plan for you...and neither do you. But I do know what He wants of both you and me.

He wants you, He wants me, He wants every single one of us to come to Him, to abandon ourselves to Him, to allow His will to move within our lives.

But it's never easy to set aside our own willfulness and abandon ourselves to God's will. When our wills dominate, we end up broken; and yet it's through that brokenness that God call to us.

And that’s when our need for His mercy, for His healing touch, is greatest.