The Message of Mercy

Around 9 years ago, Pope John Paul the Great declared a wish of the Lord Jesus, which was made known to a little nun in Poland some decades before. He declared the second Sunday of Easter to be Divine Mercy Sunday. It is a Sunday that is dedicated to our Lord’s Divine Mercy poured upon the world for sinners like you and me. If you would like to read more about the Divine Mercy, you can check out this site. But I would like to concentrate on why this is important to our generation and bringing people to our Lord Jesus and His Church.

We live during an age where we have made ourselves little gods and do not think we need a Savoir. We can be our own Savoir! Could that be true? This past couple of months, the FOCUS team at UW-Madison has been taking the message of Divine Mercy to the streets and has experienced this attitude first hand. There are people that laugh when they hear someone proclaiming the love of the Lord Jesus or maybe they just ignore the person handing them a holy card. I even encountered a few people angry at seeing the image of Jesus out on campus. “Jesus does not belong here; he belongs inside your Church.”

No, my friends, Jesus does not just belong inside little pious Churches (or impious ones at that!) but He belongs in the life of all people because we are in need of a Savior…we are in need of God! Why are we in need of God? We need mercy! Think of your own experiences – maybe you will have to think back a bit – but we have experienced brokenness and heart ache. We must realize that we are part of this brokenness and heart ache. Once we discover this, we must not be discouraged or grow afraid but throw ourselves in the ocean of God’s mercy! St. Faustina, the great apostle of mercy, wrote about this mercy in her little diary that every man, woman, and child should own and read. In her life and words, we will find strength and encouragement in our own walk with Christ!

Do not walk, but run! Go now and buy the Diary! Read it every day, just a couple of pages at a time or a few more here and there and be strengthen by the Great Mercy of God! He is calling us back to Himself! We need to respond! There is no tomorrow in the life of God…We must act NOW…TODAY! And pray tonight to God…”Make me a Saint!”