Divine Mercy Sunday was two days ago, and for many of us, it gave us a moment to reflect on our sinfulness but more importantly, God’s loving mercy! God’s grace covers all our sins. With his promise of mercy, we can be assured that each time we return to him with a humble and contrite heart, he will forgive us.
Part of this is trusting in the Lord’s goodness. I sometimes have a really hard time with this. My brokenness throughout my life has caused me to have the so-called “trust issues.” But we all do, in some capacity. Not all of us quickly take someone at their word, especially when it seems too-good-to-be-true.
“If you just trust me, I promise I will take all of your shifts this week, no questions asked.”
“I promise I will buy you pizza for a week. Just trust me.”
“I promise I will make you the happiest woman alive; marry me!”
We are attracted to the goodness of these things, but because we live in a world that’s full of brokenness, betrayal, and manipulation, we are immediately hesitant. We want to protect ourselves because we’ve been let down before. Right?
And we think about it and recognize that, that’s kind of what His promise is too, right? If we look at this, His forgiveness and mercy, in our continuous streams of weakness, definitely seems too good to be true. We often look at Him and, in our humanity, say, “Lord, I am not worthy.” We see that the end result is AMAZING, but we don’t think that it applies to us in this situation or at least, not right now.
But praise be to God because he is MERCIFUL!
The message of Divine Mercy is so painfully simple. It is that God loves us – all of us. And, he wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.
The Lord is SO full of love and so desires a relationship with each one of us that he forgives us each time we ask him. Each time we make a heartfelt plea to the Lord, each time we make a good Confession, each time we recognize our sinful ways and promise to do better–He forgives. And then we are called to share his mercy with others, just as He’s shown us mercy!
It’s best understood in terms of our ABCs:
A – Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.
B – Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.
C – Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.
Do we remember what happens in Scripture when the centurion’s daughter is dying? The Roman centurion recognizes that he is unworthy for the Lord to do anything for him. He meets Jesus and implores him, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” He knows that he’s done such evil that he doesn’t want Jesus to come to his home.
But the Lord responds: “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” And he tells the centurion to go, that his servant has been healed. And then the Gospel-writer says the man was healed at that very moment. (Mt 8:5-13)
Do we think that this centurion returned to a life of sin, of bossing others around and condemning others? Possibly. But I’d say likely not. Most likely, this man’s life was completely transformed, and he likely began sharing the message of mercy throughout his actions and his life. in his transformation, he could have lost his job as a centurion or lost friends. But looking at his story, we know his reward was far greater than anything he could lose on earth.
Should we trust in this promise that’s too-good-to-be-true? Absolutely. Without a shadow of a doubt. Because our God is a God of mercy, of forgiveness, of perfect promise.
One of my favorite songs to jam out to is “He is With Us.” Kind of old-school Christian, but the chorus gets me pumped up every time I doubt the Lord’s goodness. Check it out: Love & the Outcome’s “He is With Us.”
Jesus, I trust in You.
To learn more about Divine Mercy and the Divine Mercy chaplet, visit this website: http://www.thedivinemercy.org/
