Live Mercy
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Yesterday was Divine Mercy Sunday. Faustyna writes: God’s floodgates have been opened for us. Let us want to take advantage of them before the day of God’s justice arrives. And that will be a dreadful day! (Diary 1159)
If you have not gone to Confession with the intention of fulfilling the Divine Mercy Novena, you still have 19 days.
One final thing remains, if we want to receive the Mercy of God then we must give mercy to others.
Jesus said to Faustyna: If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy. (Diary 1317)
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Jesus said to St. Faustyna: I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.
I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor: the first- by deed, the second – by word, the third – by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me…Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be acts of mercy, and I demand the worship of My mercy through the solemn celebration of the Feast and through the veneration of the image which is painted. By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works. Diary 742
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If we want the Mercy of God then we must give mercy to others by deeds, by words and by prayer.
If we are to give mercy to others first by our deeds, then what do people need most. In our affluent western society, there are certainly people who need food and shelter, but what our wealthy culture suffers most from is from friendship deficit. It has become a world of unfriending.
Justice is the virtue by which we give others what is rightfully theirs.
Mercy goes past strict just and gives to others what is rightfully ours.
That which is most rightfully ours is our time and our freedom to do whatever we want.
Therefore, maybe the most important way we can be merciful is to give to people who do not have a right to it, our time and attention in friendship.
Isolated embers from a fire quickly grow cold. On the other hand, Embers heaped in a pile can start a large fire. Everyone needs a small group of family and friends with whom to share life and integrate their faith. We all need our team with whom we can live life, talk about our faith and pray. And this builds the best friends, conquers isolation and loneliness and is a powerful way to live mercy.
So how long do I have to keep harping on this until you pick your team and start getting together with them regularly?
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The second way Jesus wants us to give mercy is by our words.
Hmmm…that sounds like good conversation to me. But what are the obstacles to good conversation? One certainly is that many people are afraid and not confident socially. They haven’t practiced talking to people, have practiced the art of good conversation. What on earth are we going to talk about and God-forbid they ask me a question about my faith I can’t answer.
OK, the greatest way to give mercy to someone by your words is to demonstrate just how good it is that they exist and how they make the world a better place just by being in it – and how do we do that? Simply get to know their personal story. It may be the story of their past, how they got to this point today. It may be their current story of what is going on in their life. Or it might be the hoped for story of their future comprised of their desires and dreams.
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The third way Jesus commanded us to live mercy is by prayer.
There is a very easy three-fold way to do this: First, pray your Rosary for specific people and intentions. Then let
Second, share the Rosary Podcast with them
Third, invite your small group of family and friends to pray the Rosary with you.
Start with lay-ups rather than three-pointers. You probably already know someone who prays this podcast or the traditional Rosary. Invite that person or persons. That’s a lay-up. And it helps you have some success out of the gate and build some comfort and confidence. Just invite someone over for a simple meal and pray the Rosary and ask them what caught their attention during the Rosary meditation and talk about it. If there is awkward silence, then get to know their story better. If that doesn’t work them kick them out and find some new friends.