Day Ten
We’re a third of the way to Mercy Sunday on this Ides of March, and it is St. Therese’s discovery of Divine Mercy that Fr. Gaitley points to in today’s reading. She had been educated in French Jansenism, which obsessed on the justice of God while denying the mercy of God. Therese had been raised to think that God was angry at her for everything she did, and she suffered terribly from scruples and depression. But one day she discovered, with unutterable joy, God’s tender love for her. “I would throw myself into Jesus’ arms,” she wrote, “for I know how much he loves the prodigal child who returns to Him.”
Most people don’t believe in an angry God today, but almost all of us think that “Mother Nature” is angry at us (think of Apple’s 2023 “Mother Nature” ad for their line of “green” products). We feel guilty for “ruining the planet,” but the more guilty we feel the more we drive all over creation in our coal-fired electric cars or book tickets on massive airplanes to escape our depression. Let’s at least admit it: we consume unprecedented amounts of the earth’s resources while claiming to respect the planet. And that makes us unhappy, because we are afraid of God’s justice (or that of Mother Nature or whatever we think of as the higher power).
With Therese, let’s rediscover mercy! We live under friendly skies, and God is not angry with us. He longs to sweep us up in his arms, to hold us close to His Heart. Yes, we are miserable hypocrites, but God is greater! “The greater the sinner,” Jesus told Sr. Faustina, “the greater the right he has to My mercy.” The cost of love, though, is humility (unlike the knuckleheads in that Apple ad, who think they can justify themselves to Mother Nature). We have to accept God’s mercy, confessing that “without the Lord, we cannot [live]….” (sine Domenica, non possumus, as Emeritus of Abitinae said in 304AD).
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Unveil for me the mystery at the heart of the Gospel, the mystery of the heart of Christ: his tender mercy for sinners.
Novena Prayer to St. Joseph
O God, who in your ineffable providence, have chosen Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your most holy Mother and father to your Only Begotten Son. We beg that under his patronage our parish and school may flourish, teaching us to pray and leading us to heaven. To the glory of God the Father, through the grace of Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.