God never says…”I told you so”….We must give freely what has been given to us

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday……How we all are in need of God’s mercy…And here is the good news…Its always available…God’s mercy is inexhaustible…How different Jesus is from us…..How he has every right to be mad at us…But that is not how he thinks or works….This morning I read something from a nun (Sister Faustina Maria Pia SV), this is what sister had to say about God’s mercy………”The full story of our past is only revealed when imbued with his mercy, and this is what makes the very things that are most difficult in our history have tremendous value”…..God wastes nothing and many times God draws with crooked lines …Today in the Gospel from Mass St John tells us the disciples were afraid, they were locked away in a room…They betrayed God and now the powers of the state were closing in on them….And here comes Jesus……”On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you”…Think for a moment what Jesus could have said….”I told you so!”….”Why did you run away!”…No - That is not what he said…This is what he said.........…”Peace be with you”…….Never be afraid to approach Jesus Christ with ANYTHING….His love for us is greater than death itself!

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it”

Many years ago after my four disasters years away at college, there was one event that deeply disturbed me…While I confessed it already…It still disturbed me…So I went to confession again and confessed the same thing…This priest was a Franciscan and could tell that this event still bothered me….So after I was done confessing my terrible sin…The priest did something that I always remember…He took me by the hand and asked me to pray the Our Father prayer with him…As opposed to me praying it by myself as penance after I left the confessional…..Looking back at this…The priest was assuring me that God had forgiven me……Why tell you this story?…..Our sins once confessed are lost in the ocean of God’s mercy…Just as a grain of sand can no longer be found if thrown from a plane into the middle of the Pacific Ocean….And so it is with our past sins when confessed to a Catholic Priest…..Jesus does not say to us…”I told you so!”…Instead, when we are troubled and come to him, he tells us.........…”Peace be with you”

“I was hard pressed and was falling, but the LORD helped me. My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior. The joyful shout of victory in the tents of the just”

Today one week after Easter Sunday the Universal Catholic Church celebrates once again…We celebrate God’s mercy…..Our world today does not embrace mercy……..We see on social media so many looking to revenge……Mercy is the exact opposite of revenge…..Even justice, which is warranted when a crime is committed must always be tempered with mercy…..For those who read what I just wrote and disagree…This is what I ask you to think about…Imagine if God deals with you through the lens of strict justice - Imagine that for a minute! - Something tells me, none of us will fare too well…..Many times, we must experience mercy ourself - To know what it feels like - When we knew deep down that we did not deserve to be treated with mercy, when “the punishment did not meet the crime”…When we were “let off the hook” instead of having “the book thrown at us”…When we experience that kind of undeserved mercy…Its then and only then, when we are willing to be instruments of mercy to others…..God never says…”I told you so”….We must give freely what has been given to us