A Heart of Mercy and Justice
Imitating the Heart of Jesus in our Daily Lives
Dear Friends of the Heart of Jesus,
The well-known holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, once delivered this prayer at the 1995 ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of Auschwitz: “God of forgiveness, do not forgive those who created this place. God of Mercy, have no mercy on those who killed here Jewish children.” What are we as Christians, – followers of a merciful, loving God – to make of this prayer? Are we OK with the uttering words like this and keeping in our hearts sentiments of revulsion and unforgiveness for such acts as these and for the persons who committed them?
From the Diary of Saint Faustina, we can learn much about the operations of our merciful God. In it we read these words from Jesus, “I perform works of mercy in every soul. The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy. My mercy is confirmed in every work of My hands. He who trusts in My mercy will not perish…” (Diary 723)
Not only does God grant great mercy to repentant sinners, He calls each of us to be a vessel of mercy to one another. We also find these enlightening words from the Lord in Faustina’s Diary: “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.” (Diary 742)
There is no doubt that our God is merciful toward us and that God expects us to be merciful toward one another. Yet, a further reading of the Diary reveals these teachings from the Lord: “Before I come as the Just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy. Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens…” (Diary 83) “In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force Me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of Justice. Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy. (Diary 1588)
This conception of our God as being perfectly merciful and just, is also evinced in the writings of St. Margaret Mary. She tells us in her Autobiography, “Once, after I’d done something wrong, my Divine Master had this lesson for me: ‘I am a holy Master,’ He told me, ‘and I teach holiness. I am pure, and I cannot bear the least stain. That is why simplicity must color everything you do, letting me see that your motives are right and pure, for I cannot bear the slightest subterfuge. You will learn – I shall see to it – that, although I have become your Master because I love you so much, and in order to teach you and fashion you to My liking for the purpose I have in view, still I cannot bear half-hearted or cowardly souls. Although I am kindly in putting up with your weakness, you find Me no less stern and strict in correcting and punishing you, should you prove unfaithful.'”
So we see that our God is Mercy and Justice combined and that the omnipotence of God’s righteous acts is a perfect balance between mercy and justice toward each soul that God has created. Although this magnificent balance between mercy and justice does exist in the realm of the Divine, our human natures experience here on earth many tensions between justice and compassion, forgiveness and order. How are we to imitate the Merciful Heart of Jesus when complex dilemmas between mercy and justice come our way?
In considering this question, I was particularly drawn to the Lord’s response to Peter that we recently read in the Passion narratives. Peter, the Rock, has failed the Lord Jesus in His most agonizing hour. Peter had denied even knowing Jesus, not once but three times. His first impulse is to save his own skin and so he swears that he does not know Jesus. It is an out-right lie, an impulsive, yet clearly deliberate lapse on the part of one who is a follower of Jesus. The Lord does not try to reason with Peter or give him a pep talk. He simply lets him do it and we can imagine that sometime shortly after Peter’s denial, the saddened eyes of the Master fall upon His confused disciple. Peter is shaken to the core and immediately he deeply regrets his actions. The Lord is merciful to Peter, but the Lord is the perfect Judge, calling forth from the disciple, as we hear in the Easter readings (John 21: 15-17), a three-fold affirmation of love from him: “Peter, do you love me?” Peter answers, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And Jesus responds, “Then feed my sheep.” Peter must prove his love, not merely utter easy words. There is a cost in receiving the Lord’s reinstatement to discipleship, that is, Peter must put into action the teachings of the Lord, he must labor strenuously to take care of Christ’s flock and unswervingly be true to his calling. Ultimately, he would lay down his very life to show how much he believes in and loves the Lord Jesus.
It represented longgevity, fertility, and a promise of a long flight of stairs a city curfew sign spelled out the precise times when minors had to be off the levitra price browse my store streets. In addition it is enforced to ingest only when executing intercourse is confirmed otherwise viagra buy cheap not. Then visible enlarged is in the testicle or swelling lymph viagra soft 50mg nodes are in the groin. Unfortunate dietary patterns, for example, high admission of slick and greasy sustenance lead to fat statement brand viagra canada dig this which makes blood flow most exceedingly awful.
Traditionally, we are told that all the apostles except St. John the Evangelist were martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. One has to ponder this in light of the fact that St. John was the only one who remained by the cross of Christ with the holy women, faithful to the end. To our human understanding, it would seem that the apostles who ran away or hid during Christ’s passion, were later called upon to give their very lives in testimony for their Lord. Was the Just Judge requiring of them this particular atonement of blood to make up for their past cowardice?
As we know from life experiences, imitating the merciful and just Heart of the Lord can be very challenging. It is not hard to comprehend how God’s mercy toward sinners is rooted in His goodness and love. But our God is also a God of Justice and Right and uses His Divine Justice to bring out the best in our wayward human natures. A story from the life of St. Margaret Mary can elucidate this. Once when she was working by herself, the Lord showed our saint an image of a nun – still alive on earth. Margaret Mary writes in her Autobiography that she distinctly heard the Lord’s voice say to her, “Look here, now; here is a nun who is a religious in name only.” When the Lord expressed to Margaret Mary His dissatisfaction with this religious and His impending move to leave her to herself, Margaret Mary tells us she felt a moment of awful terror. Falling flat on her face, she willingly volunteered to suffer whatever God’s justice demanded, as long as He would not forsake this soul. Then she writes, “It seemed then as though God’s justice was being turned against me – nothing but frightful agony and loneliness and a crushing weight on my shoulders… I was all beset with violent temptations, particularly to despair… I ran everywhere to escape from God’s pursuit, but there was nowhere to hide… I could only sob: ‘What a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the Living God!’ At other times, face downward, I’d say, ‘Strike, my God! Cut body, life, flesh, or blood of mine… but save that soul!’ I couldn’t have put up with such a painful state for long, I must admit, without the support of our God’s loving mercy under the severity of His justice.”
“…God’s loving mercy under the severity of His justice.” These very words reflect that flawless balance of Mercy and Justice that only the Heart of Jesus can manifest in regard to our wrong-doing and failures. Isn’t it true that left to ourselves, we are usually prone to a certain vindictiveness when someone fails to grant us the respect or regard that we believe is our due? Often these vindictive tendencies can lead us to a measure of vengeance, that is, the infliction of suffering on the offender. Our naturally retaliatory propensities are not quelled until we know that the person who wronged us or our loved ones has suffered appropriately. Punishment, in this situation, is not about deference or the chance to rehabilitate the person punished. The following real life example can illustrate how complex this can be.
Adolfo Davis is a 38 year old man who has spent the last 24 years in prison. His childhood of emotional and physical depravation included a mother addicted to crack and an absent father. From ages 6 or 7, he often had to buy his own food or go hungry, so he collected cans, pumped gas, and shoplifted. At 10, he went to juvenile hall for stealing a few dollars of food stamps and soon after joined a street gang who, Davis stated, he loved an regarded as his family. At 14, he was out with two gang members when they robbed a rival gang house and shot two occupants dead. He has since spent the last 24 years in prison on a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Now his future is being reconsidered in a new hearing, the result of a Supreme Court ruling that juvenile murderers should not be subject to mandatory life without parole. But around the country, victim rights groups have strongly opposed the reopening of past sentences. “The families of the victims will suffer the most,” says the co-founder of the National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Murderers, whose pregnant sister and her husband were both murdered by a 16 year old who received a mandatory life sentence. “When I started thinking of the possibility that we’d have to go back to court, I couldn’t sleep for four months,” she said. “Our mother was devastated.” On the other side of the issue, Rev. David Kelly of the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation said that of hundreds of youths he has worked with, “Adolfo Davis stands out” for his seeming transformation and desire to help at-risk youths. “If Mr. Davis is released,” Father Kelly said, “my group will give him a fulltime job as a counselor.”
Only God can truly judge a person rightly. But as one religious author has pointed out, “The task of spiritual reformation is dangerous… and requires great humility and great caution, aware that zeal for punishment often turns out to be a mask for cruelty and resentment.”
Frequently in the passage of our everyday lives we are given opportunities to be merciful. Most of these situations come upon us without warning and test our spirit of generosity, self-control, and selflessness. One example that stands out and can inspire us is the untold story of Father Thomas Byles. A 42 year old English convert to Catholicism, Byles was on board the Titanic headed to New York to offer the wedding Mass for his brother William when in the twilight hours of Sunday, April 14th, 1912, the great ship struck an iceberg. According to witnesses, the priest aided women and children into lifeboats as the ship started to sink, then he heard confessions, gave absolution, and led passengers in reciting the rosary. One survivor remembered the priest standing on deck with Catholics, Protestants, and Jews kneeling around him. His supreme deed of mercy as that unexpected tragedy struck was to refuse twice the offer of a place in a rescue boat, saying that his duty was to stay on the ship even if one soul needed his ministrations.
On this Mercy Sunday, let us all place our trust in the merciful Heart of Jesus. His Heart is beckoning us to come to Him, sinners though we are, to receive His peace and blessings in our lives and to give us the strength to be merciful to those in need.†
This talk on Sacred Heart Spirituality was given on April 12th, 2015, by one of the Sisters at the Monastery of the Visitation in Tyringham, Massachusetts.