Divine Mercy
St Faustina Kowalska, died
of tuberculosis in 1938 in Poland. She was 33 years old. She lived the last 13
of these years as a nun. The diary she wrote the last four years made popular a
truth that has been there from the beginning: that God is merciful. The
In speaking with my sister
recently, we talked about how we all want to be understood, forgiven and loved.
She came across a line that struck her: “The bridge between longing and
belonging is prayer.” I would teak the line and say that the bridge is God’s
mercy. We belong to God because God has been merciful to us in Christ.
As a Church we can embody
God’s grace by cultivating an attitude of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is
not easy and requires constant practice. Catholic Universities like USD and
Notre Dame have Peace Studies programs with faculty dedicated to studying
forgiveness and reconciliation. Both of these programs are in place thanks to
the late Joan B. Kroc, widow of McDonald’s Corp. founder Ray Kroc, who was a
passionate advocate of peace and reconciliation.
I think that as Catholics,
our institutions, like our schools, take seriously values like reconciliation.
In the secular word of, for example, business, the language often used is
“conflict resolution” or “conflict management,” and my sense is that these are
tools so that a business can run more efficiently. Reconciliation for a
Christian is not a tool, but a vision for the world grounded on something that
has already happened: that because of God’s mercy we have been reconciled to
God in Christ.
Pope Francis ingeniously
coined the idea that mercy is a verb. "In front of the loving gaze of
God," said Pope Francis once, "we cannot remain indifferent [to
others]." We [extend] mercy.
God Bless, Fr. Carlos, OSA.
Sunday, April 28, 2019 — Second Sunday of Easter of Divine
Mercy
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