Today the Church celebrates the feast of one of its newer saints: St. Maria Faustina Kowalska - the Polish Sister of Mercy who was chosen by Jesus to be his “secretary of the divine mercy message” - a message and a devotion that has grown rapidly, especially in the United States the past several years.
Today’s readings, from the regular cycle of readings fit this feast perfectly. In the first reading from the Prophet Baruch the “people of the exile prayed” justice is with the Lord, our God, and today we are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem…that we [all] have sinned in the Lord’s sight…We did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God…and we did evil in his sight!
This very conversion is what the “mercy message is all about” - when once we, any of us human beings realizes that so much of our thinking, our speaking and our behavior is far from the center of the track - we need but allow the mercy of God to draw our hearts to him for he is always, always ready for bestow his mercy and forgiveness whenever we ask!
The alleluia verse today gives us a key to understanding the process: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” The voice of God calling us to repentance and an experience of his mercy is always speaking loudly and clearly - the only thing that can prevent us truly from responding is if we put our spiritual hands up to our spiritual ears and refuse to listen! But if, perchance, today we do hear his voice - may the Spirit begin quickly to unharden our hearts so that we can get the full benefit of his mercy and redemption.
In the gospel passage Jesus is telling everyone that the people of God have always had great prophets, great spokesmen in their midst telling them explicitly about God, his love, his mercy, his forgiveness - his willingness to give them a new start! The greatest of which is he, himself, who is right in their midst. But unfortunately, most of them had hearts so hardened that they could not recognize Jesus for who he truly was!
A great prophet and promoter of Jesus was St. Maria Faustina Kowalska - in our own day - who very carefully followed Jesus’ own instruction as to how to communicate the LOVE, MERCY and FORGIVENESS OF GOD at this particular time in salvation history. She was to see to it - at Jesus’ instruction - that an image of the Risen Jesus with copious rivers of red and white rays emanating from a glowing heart was painted - which would speak of the forgiveness accomplished for all sin (the red rays) and the availability of God’s tremendous graces through the sacraments of the Church (the white rays)! The picture was to be labeled: “Jesus, I trust in you!” He also requested that the Sunday after Easter be designated also as DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY! Pope John Paul II brought about this designation toward the end of his pontificate!
Mercy is God’s greatest attribute - it is how he shows his great power and love! He is so majestic and magnificent that he can show a Father’s tender and delicate love to the most hardened sinner!
“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts!”
St. Maria Faustina, pray for us!
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