March 8, 2011 Tuesday: Divine Mercy - Rich in Mercy

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A week ago I was asked to teach religion lessons to Tenth Grade boys on the 6th and 9th Commandments of the Ten Commandments; the religion coordinator said it was difficult to get volunteers to teach this topic, so I was it. For those of you who do not remember the 6th and 9th Commandments, they are:  ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ and ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.’ (You see why it was difficult to get volunteers?) First I asked the boys, “Do you know of friends whose family was affected by adultery?” The boy on my right said, “My family. My dad cheated on my mom. Why did he do that when he has three children? He then left us, and we had to go on welfare for a couple of years.” My heart sank upon hearing that. I asked, “How did you feel?” He said, “It really hurt me. I didn’t even want to acknowledge that my dad existed. I was so ashamed to have a father like that.” I felt from this young man, a cry for his father. As much as he was hurt by his father’s failures, he was crying out for the love of his own father.

Pope John Paul II pointed out in his Encyclical Rich in Mercy, that this generation has tremendous potential but there is a lack of peace and a sense of powerlessness. As I spoke to the boys about their own struggles to temptations of and challenges to purity, I got the sense that our generation is acutely dealing with what St. Paul spoke about in his Letter to the Romans:
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin.
What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.” (Romans 7:14-15) What is the answer to this sense of powerlessness and lack of internal peace? Pope John Paul gives us this insight: “Man cannot be manifested in the full dignity of his nature without reference to God. Man and man’s lofty calling are revealed in Christ through the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love.” What are we worth? How valuable are we before the eyes of God? Christ reveals to us what we are worth. St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
“All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ  (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:3-7)

When we encounter Jesus, we encounter Heavenly Father’s Mercy made flesh. Christ is mercy incarnate, the visible Mercy of the Father. Wherever Jesus went conversion of hearts occurred because of his tender mercy. The Church and the disciples of Jesus are called likewise to be this tender mercy made flesh. Mother Teresa understood this call.

At the height of the war between Lebanon and Israel in 1982, Mother Teresa ventured to Israel to bring God’s mercy to the conflict. She made a request to the American Ambassador to Israel that she would be allowed to go into Beirut to rescue 38 children who were mentally handicapped. The request was refused because the bombing was still going on. Yet, Mother Teresa confidently told the Ambassador that Blessed Mother was going to grant her a cease-fire the next day because it was her feast day. Mother Teresa wrote in a letter, “I brought a big Easter candle with the image of Our Lady with child on it. On Thursday the bombing was terrible. I lit the candle that evening about 4PM. At 5PM all stopped all of a sudden.” Taking advantage of the cease-fire, Mother Teresa and UN Peace Keepers brought 38 crippled and mentally handicapped children to her convent on Israel’s side. A documentary captured a moment shared between one of these children and one of Mother Teresa’s sisters. The child suffered frequent epileptic seizures. For an entire week this child had no one to look after him while suffering seizures. Without food or water, this child was left with only skin and bones. As the child was undergoing yet another seizure, one of Mother Teresa’s sisters began to stroke his face and his body. That tender touch woke him out of the seizure. He gazed at the sister, as would a child who had missed his mother for a long time. At a press conference later that day, Mother Teresa told the press: “This is what Jesus came to teach us. How to love; how to love one another. Not to look at the color; not to look at nationality; not to look at rich or poor. My brother, my sister. These are sad days here in Lebanon. We need lots of love to forgive. We need much more humility to ask for forgiveness. I want you to share the joy of loving.”

John Paul II wrote in the Encyclical that mercy restores the value of human dignity, promotes good, and draws good from evil. He said that mercy is the fundamental content and power of Christ’s mission. We too, like Mother Teresa, have the mission to bring mercy into our families and into our lives. Jesus who is mercy made flesh becomes part of us as we take Him in Communion so that we may be merciful to others. Let us ask Him during communion today to make flesh His mercy through us—through our hands, through our kindness, gentleness, patience, compassion, and understanding for others.