Bible Study: Acts 5, 12 to 16. Revelations
1, 9 to 19 and Mark 20, 19 to 31.
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sin of any, they
are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” In one
sentence, Jesus gave his apostles the Divine Mandate to act as his
intermediaries in the administration of the sacrament of Confession. By this
action, Christ has not only died for our sins but made it easy for us to
receive forgiveness of sins whenever we go to confession. This action is the
highpoint of the display of God’s mercy upon mankind and that is why today is
called the Divine Mercy Sunday.
Today we reflect on the infinite mercy of God richly displayed
by Jesus Christ such that right there on the cross, Jesus prayed to the Father,
“Forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” Luke 23:34. In all
sincerity, I do ask myself sometimes, “If I was Jesus and people were beating
me, insulting me and about to kill me, would I have the courage to pray for
their forgiveness?” Today, Christ has risen from the dead, he is now above any
human power and authority but instead of taking vengeance on those who killed
him, he come to establish the sacrament of penance giving his disciples the
power to forgive on his behalf.
For many of us, justice is only served when we have the
opportunity of retaliating a wrong done and until that happens, we are usually
restless. Today, Christ shows us a better path, a better route to take, a short
cut to inner peace instead, that is, the path of forgiveness and mercy. Jesus
does not only forgive, he also makes it so easy for us to access that
forgiveness anytime we go to a priest for confession. In accessing the
forgiveness of God, let us not forget that we too ought to be agents of that
mercy and forgiveness by forgiving those who often offend us as well. It would
be an irony if we ask for God’s forgiveness while we refuse to give out this
forgiveness to our own brothers and sisters.
Sometimes because we are unable to forgive our brothers and
sisters, we tend to believe that God has not or will not also forgive us
easily. Again, we tend to forget that the priest is not the one forgiving our
sins but God himself. It take great faith to see the face of Christ in the priest
and to accept that the priest is just a physical representative of Jesus. Like
Thomas, there is a tendency in us not to believe until we see. But we don’t
have to base our faith only on what we see as Jesus says: “Blessed are those
who have not seen and yet believe.” You might not have seen Jesus face to face
in the confessional, but blessed are you if you are able to see him with the
eyes of faith each time to go to a priest for confession.
God’s mercy has been given us freely but all it takes for us to
access it is our faith. The faith to believe that by simply confessing our sins
and hearing those words of absolution, the guilt is taken away, the faith to
know that even though the priest is human, it is Christ himself that is hearing
our confession, the faith to allow ourselves become agents of this forgiveness
by replicating what Christ did on the cross for our brothers and sisters who
offend us constantly. This faith is something so precious that we need to pray
for it, as St. Paul says, this faith is the very victory that overcomes the
world.
Mercy is an undeserved favour. And this
favour is not only limited to the forgiveness of sins. For instance as we read
in our first reading this morning, great signs and wonders were worked by the
Apostles because despite their personal unworthiness were given the special
favour of God to work such miracles. Even in the second reading, we see the mercy
of God at work in the revelations given to John of which he was told to write
them down.
Today we are called to dispose ourselves
for God’s mercy, to ask for that mercy and be agents of mercy ourselves. By imitating
the sacrifice of Jesus for us, we too can extend God’s mercy to those who may
have hurt us in the past. Above all, we are called to carry out the corporal
and spiritual works of mercy which in themselves are a summary of the Gospel. The
corporal works of mercy are:
To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To harbour the harbourless;
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive;
To bury the dead.
While the spiritual works of mercy
are:
To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offences willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.
Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, help me to be merciful
like your father is merciful. Amen.
God bless you. Good morning. Be
Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Sunday.
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