BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL …

FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

(reflections by Willy Effinger)

What is mercy? Mercy flows directly from the great virtue of charity.  It is the outpouring of our heart and our actions, our words and our deeds.  Mercy responds to the suffering with kindness, to the lonely with presence, to the unfortunate with understanding, to the afflicted with comfort.  A merciful soul will do everything in its power to alleviate another’s suffering, to eradicate another’s misery.  Where misery abounds, mercy has the chance to blossom.  The merciful will be saddened, yes, even wrenched to tears, by the wretchedness displayed in the world around him.  But sentimental tears are not enough for the truly merciful – only action will satisfy such a soul!  This kind of soul experiences the misfortune of another as the misfortune of a brother or sister and thus implores the Lord’s mercy on his or her behalf with all its resources.

In the Father’s fathomless love, He created us in His own image, to be with Him in Paradise forever, to know no sin or tears, but only heavenly bliss.  In mankind’s stubbornness, God’s goodness was rejected and sin became part of everyday life, effectively destroying the possibility of life everlasting.  So what does a merciful and loving Father do?  He offers us HIS OWN SON on the Cross, so that through THIS MAN’s suffering, the eternal suffering of all mankind could be alleviated.  We, the children of the living God, can thus be rescued from our pitiful and disgusting state. 

“It was essential that HE should, in this way, be made completely like HIS brothers so that HE could become a merciful and trustworthy high priest to expiate the sins of the people.”  (Hebrews 2:17)  By the Lords’ passion and death, by His actions and by His Resurrection, the Father makes His merciful love known to us.  How can we measure man’s sin against His mercy?  God can and will forgive every one of mankind’s sins, no matter how small or immense they may be, for His mercy is truly without limit.  Just as He seeks the lost sheep to bring it back to the sheepfold, so will He forgive our sins and open the door to life everlasting.

In the Book of Ezekiel 33:11, we read: “…I do not take pleasure in the death of the wicked who changes his ways and saves his life.”  He, the Lord of Mercy, through the offering of the Sinless Lamb, has opened the door to real eternal life.  “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18).  In entry 1448 of “Divine Mercy in My Soul”, Saint Faustina records the following words of Our Lord:  “…were a soul like a decaying corpse so that from a human standpoint, there would be no hope of restoration and everything would already be lost, it is not so with God.  The miracle of Divine Mercy restores that soul in full.  Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy!”

The late Pope John Paul II, on the occasion of Sister Faustina’s Beatification (Mercy Sunday 1993) said: “Where, if not in the Divine Mercy, can the world find refuge and the light of hope?”  In his encyclical “Rich in Mercy”, he also wrote:  “The only thing that can limit its (Divine Mercy) effect in human beings is the lack of good will, that is, of repentance and conversion, or in positive terms, a persistent, stubborn rejection of grace and truth, especially by refusing the testimony of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ.”

To summarize, then, no one is ever excluded from the grace of God’s Divine Mercy.  No one is ever excluded from the grace of conversion, unless they resist God’s invitation to change.  Remember the Lord’s words from entry 1448 of St. Faustina’s Diary:

“Oh how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of

God's mercy!

You will call out in vain, but it will be too late.”

Image courtesy of Carol Gerten's Fine Art Gallery