Divine Mercy 2006

"He scourges and then has mercy." (Tobit 13:2)

In my observations of people over the years of my priesthood, I have noticed a familiar pattern in the workings of God’s providence. The New Testament, written by first generation adult Christians, describes the experience of converts to the Church as those who have made a permanent change, a decisive choice for Christ and an abandonment of the sensual, earthy and godless way of the life that pagans lived. The presumption was that, once the Christian had given his life over to Christ, there was no turning back to his former wicked ways. The conversion was basically permanent. Backsliders were considered to be in a worse state than before they became Christians, and their betrayal of Christ was thought as decisive, final, just as was their conversion to Him. But those were the days when they were mainly adults becoming Christians, after they had lived a while; when their choice for Christ would have been mature, and when they had known the futility of the ways of the world. They had once ‘been there’ and been disappointed.

Practices have changed greatly since those apostolic times. While there are still many adults who covert to the Catholic faith in our time, yet the standard practice–and surely a wise one–is for most to be baptized in their infancy. This gives a child the incomparable advantages of being in a state of grace from earliest days, of growing in it throughout childhood, and of being ‘safe’ should he die prematurely. But there is also a little drawback in infant baptism, a disadvantage that should not make us stop baptizing infants, but one we must reckon with. It is the fact that psychological awareness and maturity of judgment, the testings of temptation and the acquisition of virtue, do not occur until later on in life. One must pass through the experiences of adolescence and feel the tug of the capital sins for one to be set solidly on the way to a fully committed Christian way of life and holiness. This is not to say that there have not been some who have passed though their youth unscathed, retaining their innocence, and adhering to strict Christian discipline, such as St. Aloysius Gonzaga or St. Therese Lisieux. But these seem to be more the exception than the rule. Often one must matriculate in the tough school of life’s errors and failures in order to learn that the Church has had it right all along; that the way of goodness and holiness proposed by the Church is the only way to live. A good number of people, I believe, have had to learn this lesson the hard way.

There is another class of persons, however, who have left the path of righteousness and gone on–merrily, it would seem–to live in sin, heedless of the reproach of conscience and dismissive of the admonitions of others. What does the good Lord do for these souls who are so likely to carry on in sin and–without an intervention–die unrepentant? Will God merely abandon them to their vices and allow them to suffer eternal hell, without providing opportunities for bringing them to their senses?

The parable of the Prodigal Son demonstrates what I have found to be the Almighty’s way of handling these hard cases. "He scourges, and then has mercy." Often when the proficient sinner begins to feel the sting of want, or suffers a penetrating pain in his heart, an has an acute ailment of the body he begins to reflect on his life and on his severed relationship to God. When other means fail to reach into a person’s consciousness, God will often use His whip, the scourges of mishap, to bring one around to an awareness of his spiritually miserable state. This is indeed a bitter medicine but seems to be the desperate means God employs to bring back the persistently erring sinner. "He scourges, and then has mercy."

Today we have Divine Mercy Sunday, a wonderful time when Christ’s merciful Heart seems particularly active in forgiving sin and dispensing grace. Over the years, I’ve heard many a confession on Mercy Sunday of those who had been away from the Church for a long time. I’ve seen the happy results of those who have adopted the motto, "Jesus, I trust in thee." For those who have remained in God’s grace, this day has been a confirmation of their hope; for souls making a comeback to God, this day has been the recovery of their lost faith, of their early love.

Today I would ask that you petition our Lord for something very special. Ask Him to bring back some lost souls. You know who they are: they’re in your family, among your relatives, your acquaintances, people you work with, your neighbors. The Saint Monica Sodality has been praying for those whose names you have submitted. Now you should ask the Lord to set about His work. Perhaps He has already tried on them without success the ordinary measures of conscience, counsel from others, and the good example of some devout Christians. It may be that He will need a more muscular approach to bring them to their senses: our Lord has His own methods. We should ask for the eternal good of these souls and not worry too much about how the Lord will bring it about. There’s great reward for you when you are instrumental in bringing back even a single soul to God. Make those intentions now as we continue with the Mass to ‘move’ our Lord’s clemency by the fervor of your prayers.