by Archbishop Jeremiah Ferens

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28). This invitation from our Lord and Savior echoes in all the teachings and works of God revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Who better can testify to God’s mercy if not those who accepted His call or simply were struck by the grace of His love for humanity? It often happens that the faithful in Christ, who experience the unifying mercy of God, when faced with like-minded people for the first time in their lives, declare with great joy in the Lord: “It seems that we have known each other for a long time!” The feeling of being brothers and sisters is the fruit of divine mercy, for it is common to all Christians to experience that God’s mercy unites us in unity, so that we may worship and exalt Him.

I invite the reader/listener to take a brief walk with me through the Sacred Scriptures, which are the main source of revelation of the divine mercy.

The biblical texts, tacitly or explicitly, in almost every pericope reveal God as merciful and a friend of mankind; full of desire for the wellbeing and salvation of humanity. This truth is biblically centralized in the action and words of Jesus, who declared: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (Jn 3:16-17).

In the Book of Lamentations (3:22-23) the Prophet Jeremiah makes his experience clear: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

By His infinite mercy God, who is Transcendent – The Most High –, is also present within the reach of human beings in every place and situation. All who turn or are found by Him discover Him as the „Love“ manifested in wonderful works and words, from creation to eternity. We perceive the echo of His mercy in the gift of life, in the adornment of the human being with the image and likeness of God (Gn 1:26-28), in the countless gifts, in all His works and words. Every miracle or healing performed by Jesus is a concrete proof of His divine mercy manifesting to a humanity in need of salvation. And each Commandment or divine teaching leads us to that good „Path“ which is He himself (Jn 14:6), in which we also discover Him as „the truth and the life“, that is, as the eternal source of saving, life-giving and reconciling mercy.

We see God’s generous mercy figuratively revealed in the action of the good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37) who heals the wounds of the man who fell into the hands of robbers. He makes the wounded overcome the consequences of sin.

The same goodness of God reveals itself in the attitude of the merciful father (Lk 15:11-32) who welcomes the prodigal son and restores the unity of the family, including the eldest son who until then, due to his spiritual blindness, lived as a simple servant in his father’s home.

The publican (Lk 18:9-17) repentant of his sins, being reconciled with God, was ready to live in fraternal unity after discovering the ineffable value of the merciful and divine goodness that forgives and justifies.

The two Gadarene demoniacs (Mt 8:28-34), under the action of the demons, were so fierce, so antipathetic and antisocial, that no one dared to pass by the path where they lived, in the tombs. But after being unbound by God’s powerful mercy, they were freed from any obstacle to live in unity with their neighbors and to worship and exalt the Lord with them.

In the encounter with the Samaritan woman (Jn 4:7-42) at Jacob’s well, Jesus finds a simple way to break down religious, cultural and other barriers to make divine mercy prevail over all human motives. He simply asks her for a bit of water, thus opening a dialogue which led that woman to discover her entire personal truth and to have the privilege of knowing the Messiah. At the beginning, she came into scene simply as “a Samaritan woman”, but later she emerges from this merciful dialogue as someone who knew the Wellspring of “Living Water”, conscious of being sought by the Father as to make her an worshiper of God “in Spirit and Truth”. Transformed by God’s mercy, she becomes an evangelizer capable of attracting all the residents of that village to approach Jesus and believe in Him.

Jesus’ divine mercy radically transformed the life of tax collector Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-10). For this short and sinful man, the curiosity to see Jesus resulted in the luck of receiving the Creator of forgiveness into his home and benefiting from the opportunity to carry out a true conversion process. He analyzed and recognized his own past mistakes and promised to correct himself, help and compensate those who he had harmed. Therefore, the reconciliation also takes place, which is an indispensable condition for unity in Christ.

Surely the highest and most precious manifestation of God’s mercy is in the work of salvation wrought by the Eternal Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 Jn 4:9-10). Without ceasing to be God and without losing anything of His divinity, He became incarnate as a true Man. He assumed all of our guilt and freely surrendered himself to judgment to be condemned, crucified, killed, buried and resurrected on the third day. The Merciful One while being crucified and suffering mortal pain had compassion over the sinful humanity and prayed: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). What love is this? Behold the true meaning of mercy! Such divine mercy is beyond the reach of human intellectual capacities. It is what makes us pass from the situation of eternally condemned to death to the situation of those who have eternal life in Him. Divine mercy makes us definitively justified in Jesus Christ.

God’s mercy also manifests itself in a dramatic way (Acts 9:1-30). Out of love for His persecuted faithful and on behalf of all humanity, near Damascus the Risen Lord made a strong light shine from heaven and Saul was knocked from his horse to hear: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” – “Who are you?” he asked. – “I am Jesus, the one you persecute. But get up, go into the city, and there they will tell you what you must do. ” By divine mercy, even the most fearsome persecutor of Christians goes through the process of conversion and becomes the Apostle of the Nations. And with us he shares his experience: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2:20). “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” … And he concluded that no one and nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rm 8,35-39).

The same merciful Lord is still alive and living among us. Based on personal experiences and that of other believers in Christ, we are sure that God’s mercy is manifest to us today even in times of adversity, which we often face in our lives. Divine mercy at every moment is that supreme good that gives us the necessary strength to “overcome evil with good” (Rm 12:21).

Our intellectual capacities and human words are insufficient and incapable of expressing who God is and the fruits of our life in Him. His love does not ignore, marginalize or discard anyone. It is devoted to the good and the bad. Therefore, a Christian who has a true life in God is never repellent to any human being. He is pleasant according to the model of the merciful Christ himself. Therefore, let us allow ourselves to speak eloquently and allow the infinite mercy of God to triumph in our hearts, for it is what unites us in unity and leads us to worship and exalt Him, in Spirit and Truth, now and ever, and for ever and ever. Amen.