"You Will Be Repaid"

 I have heard and read the Gospel passage for this Sunday's Mass many times in my life, but its ending struck a completely different cord with me this morning - one that is quite humbling.

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. . . .he said to the host who invited him, "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (Lk 14:1, 12-14)

So what struck me? It was that if, at the end of time, I find myself invited into the wedding feast of the Lamb (Rev 19:7-9), then I will recognize that I am the poor, the crippled, the lame, and blind that our Lord was talking about! If the Lord "repays" me for inviting the earthly poor, crippled, and blind to feast, then His repayment will take the form of inviting me to feast with Him — me who, even after years of His patience and grace is still so poor in terms of good works, often crippled and lame when it comes to loving others, and sometimes willfully blind to what needs to be done. 

Jesus calls each of us to humility, to recognize our true state before Him. We need to thank Him for all the good that He has already done in our souls, but we also have to be cognizant of how much is still left to be done. All of us are poor, completely in need of His grace. All of us have been interiorly crippled and lame when it came time to do what is right and good; and all of us have been guilty of being willfully blind to the truth at certain times. But God overcomes our destitution and sin by His grace. In Jesus the Father give us what we have no right to in strict justice. When Jesus calls us to meet the needs of poor, the crippled, the lame, and blind; He asks us to do what He is constantly doing for us. He invites us to let the grace with which He floods our souls become truly effectual, to change us. And God, generous Father that He is, "rewards" our cooperation with the Strength at work in us (Eph 2:8-9; Phil 2:12-13)! The truth is that, as we cooperate, we are changed into the image of the Bridegroom. He makes our souls clean and vibrant, able to engage in heavenly feasting. (And blessed be God for the gift of purgatory!)

I should spend time marinating in these other statements from Luke's Gospel:

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Lk 6:32-38)

Jesus said, "Peace be with you!" (Easter night & Divine Mercy Sunday)

When I pray the Rosary during this first week of Easter, I can never get past the first mystery - Jesus' Resurrection.  Laying in bed and praying last night, I was seized by Jesus' words when He appeared to the disciples that first evening, "Peace be with you!" (Lk.24:36; Jn.20:19).

They are exquisite.  At the end of the day, my head is often buzzing with the things I didn't get done - the things hanging over it that need to be accomplished tomorrow.  And these words of Jesus reminded me that right then, in that moment, the Lord wanted me to let go and rest.  It was time to enjoy Him and then drift off to sleep, "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Mt. 6:34).

But there was/is a much deeper meaning to Jesus' "Peace be with you!"  The Lord means that we are at peace with God.  Our sins?  On the Cross, He offered the Father all of the love and obedience our sins denied Him.  And now, in Jesus, we are at peace with God.  Our shame has been redeemed.  We can rest in the arms of a Father Who loves us, free of embarrassment over our pasts.  That is the gift that Baptism gave us - peace with God, the peace of children.  

And if we have sinned greatly after Baptism?  The Sacrament of Reconciliation restores that peace.  Listen to Jesus' very next words to the Apostles, "Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’  And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven’” (Jn. 20:21-23).

We will hear those verses from John's Gospel again this Sunday, on what the Church calls Divine Mercy Sunday (more on that here). If you need to, visit the Sacrament of Reconciliation this weekend and celebrate Christ's mercy, the true and lasting source of peace.

If Your Mind Wanders During the Divine Mercy Chaplet...

www.viarosa.com

I was recently talking about prayer with a group of young adults, when a young woman asked me what I focused upon mentally while praying the decades of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. When praying the ten Hail Marys of the Rosary we have the mysteries to meditate upon, but what specifically do we meditate upon during the Chaplet?

In the Chaplet we petition the Father, through Christ's Passion, to have mercy upon us and the world. We can focus our petitions for mercy upon specific people and intentions, as our Lord taught St. Faustina to do in the Novena to Divine Mercy. I will sometimes picture a different person's face for each of the fifty times I pray, "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy upon us and on the whole world" - family members, friends, clergy, government leaders. 

The majority of the time, however, I try to focus my mind upon what calls forth the Father's mercy, our Lord's Passion. I will focus each decade upon a different one of our Lord's wounds - His back, crown of thorns, hands, feet, side. I sometimes meditate upon the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. I don't use images very often in my prayer, but one of the young adults I spoke with shared how she will gaze at a crucifix while praying the Chaplet.

There really are a variety of ways to maintain our mental focus while praying the Chaplet. The next time our minds wander during its five decades let's resolve to implement one or more of these methods.

NEW RELEASE - Oct. 26th

The new booklet is almost here...and it had its humble beginning right here on this blog.

The good folks at En Route Books and Media allowed me to develop those initial reflections into the work pictured at left. What can you expect to find in Marrying the Rosary to Divine Mercy Chaplet ?

The booklet encourages you to intersperse your praying of the decades of the Rosary with a decade from the Divine Mercy Chaplet. I share twenty rosary meditations (and their corresponding chaplet intercessions) that arose during my own marrying of the devotions. In the Joyful and Luminous Mysteries I recognized how our Lord's Cross cast its shadow backward over his entire life. In the Sorrowful Mysteries my understanding of Jesus’ pain was deepened; and in the Glorious our Catholic conviction that the Cross is the precondition of glory was powerfully affirmed. 

When we move from a decade of the Rosary to a decade of the Chaplet we join Mary at the foot of her Son’s Cross, voicing the prayer that filled her Immaculate Heart on Good Friday, “Eternal Father, I offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity of thy dearly beloved Son…” With her we join ourselves to Jesus’ offering and intercede for the fruits of his sacrifice to be generously poured out upon the Church and world. 

Each mystery of the Rosary is introduced by a Scriptural reference that you are encouraged to read. My meditation flows from that verse, weaving in other passages of Scripture. We then allow our meditation to inspire the petitions we pray in the Chaplet. By following this pattern (Read - Meditate - Pray), we engage in the first three elements of lectio divina.

The booklet also contains a QR Code allowing you to download a free audio version to help you meditate and pray as you walk and drive.

Oh, and I am incredibly honored to report that the booklet has a foreword from Fr. Donald Calloway (which can be read here) as well as endorsements from Kathleen Beckman, Dr. Kevin Vost, and Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle (here)!

The booklet will be available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com on Oct. 26th (and your local Catholic bookstore not too long after that), but En Route is offering a special 30% discount for anyone who orders directly from them prior to that date. Hope you will take them up on it!  God bless.

DON'T FORGET - Divine Mercy Novena Starts Today!

For those unfamiliar with it, the Divine Mercy is a beautiful devotion consisting of several elements to unite our prayers with Jesus’ offering on the Cross.  One of those elements is a Novena (nine days of prayer) beginning today, Good Friday.  Here's a quick summary:  

On February 22, 1931, St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun, saw an apparition of our Lord.  He was clothed in a white garment, one hand raised in blessing, and the other slightly parting the garment at his chest.  Two large rays, one red and the other pale, emanated from his heart.  The Lord directed her to, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature, ‘Jesus, I trust in You.’  I desire that this image be venerated. . .throughout the world”[1]  When asked to explain the image, our Lord responded, “The two rays denote Blood and Water.  The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous.  The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. . .These two rays issued from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross.”[2]

“Jesus, I trust in You.”  Trust, the absolute conviction that Jesus’ heart is filled with mercy for us, is a striking feature of the devotion.  Faustina reported the Lord saying, “The graces of my mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is – trust.  The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive. . . I am sad when souls ask for little, when they narrow their hearts.”[3]To implore God’s mercy, Jesus imparted a prayer to Faustina.  It has become known as the Chaplet of Divine Mercy:

First of all, you will say one Our Father and Hail Mary and the I Believe in God.  Then on the Our Father beads you will say the following words: “Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.”  On the Hail Mary beads you will say the following words:  “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.”  In conclusion, three times you will recite these words: “Holy God, Holy Might One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”[4]

The chaplet recalls the great truths that we are a priestly people (1 Peter 2:9) and that Jesus’ sacrifice is the most precious offering we can bring before the Father, the reason for all the grace that flows to us.  With this central truth in mind, we listen to the promise made to Faustina: “My daughter, encourage souls to say the chaplet which I have given to you.  It pleases Me to grant everything they ask of Me by saying the chaplet.  When hardened sinners say it, I will fill their souls with peace, and the hour of their death will be a happy one.”[5]

Jesus further instructed Faustina to immerse herself in prayer for his mercy from 3 to 4 p.m. daily  – the hour of his death:

Invoke [My mercy’s] omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners . . . it was the hour of grace for the whole world . . . try your best to make the stations of the Cross in this hour . . . and if you are not able . . . immerse yourself in prayer there where you happen to be, if only for a brief instant.[6]

Jesus also told Faustina that he wanted the Sunday following Easter to be a celebration of Divine Mercy.  He promised, “Whoever will go to confession and Holy Communion on that day will receive complete forgiveness of sin and punishment.”  In preparation, he requested that Faustina make a yearly novena, nine days of prayer to begin on Good Friday and finish on the Saturday before the feast.  “On each day you will bring to My Heart a different group of souls, and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy:”[7]

1.      All humanity, especially sinners

2.      Priests and religious

3.      Devout and faithful souls

4.      Non-Christians and atheists

5.      Christians not united to the Church

6.      The meek and humble, and children

7.      Those who glorify and love Jesus’ mercy

8.      Souls in purgatory

9.      Those who are lukewarm

Like the Solemn Intercessions of Good Friday, these intentions invite us to participate in Jesus’ intercession.

As a matter of private revelation the Church can never make the Divine Mercy Devotion incumbent upon her people.  I doubt anyone reading this however would dispute it as a singular way to enter into the intercession Jesus made through his Passion.  John Paul II was devoted to it.  In the year 2000 he invited the entire Church to turn anew to God’s mercy by establishing the Second Sunday of the Easter season as Divine Mercy Sunday and attaching a plenary indulgence to its celebration – but more on that later.

---

[1] Kowalska, Mary Faustina, Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul, (Stockbridge, Massachusetts: Marians of the Immaculate Conception, 1996), p.24.

[2] Ibid, p.139.

[3] Ibid, p.561.

[4] Ibid, p.207-208.

[5] Ibid, p.547.

[6] Ibid, p.558

[7] Ibid, p.435.  The intentions for each of the nine days are discussed in detail on pp.436-442.

Judas' Greatest Sin Was NOT His Betrayal of Christ

Love receiving emails from Daily Gospel.  I have to share the commentary it paired with the reading from Matthew, focusing on Judas' betrayal.  St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380 A.D.) recorded these words in her Dialogue, words she believed were spoken to her by God the Father:

Saint Catherine heard God say to her: This is the sin that is never forgiven, now or ever: the refusal, the scorning of my mercy. For this offends me more than all the other sins they have committed. So the despair of Judas displeased me more and was a greater insult to my Son than his betrayal had been. Therefore, such as these are reproved for this false judgment of considering their sin to be greater than my mercy... They are reproved also for their injustice in grieving more for their own plight than for having offended me. 

They are being unjust in this because they are not giving me what is mine, nor taking for themselves what belongs to them. It is their duty to offer love and bitter heartfelt contrition in my presence for the sins they have committed against me. But they have done the opposite. They have lavished such tender love on themselves and felt so sorry about the punishment they expect for their sins! So you see how unjust they are. They will be punished, therefore, on both accounts. They have scorned my mercy, so I turn them over to my justice.

Powerful words to keep in mind as we begin the Novena to Divine Mercy on Good Friday!

I remember hearing Archbishop Fulton Sheen contrast the actions of Judas and Peter.  Both betrayed the Lord.  Both wept for their sins.  But where Peter opened himself to God to receive mercy and forgiveness, Judas turned inward on himself and took his life in despair.  The great tragedy is that, had Judas turned to God as Peter did, we would know him as Saint Judas.

Walking the Chaplet of Divine Mercy

Divine Mercy Chaplet made at Etsy.com

Today I am trapped inside by the frigid temps, but last weekend I was able to get out for a five mile walk; and with both spring and Lent just around the corner I wanted to suggest a method of prayer. 

Now, on a five mile walk there is plenty of time to pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy - and the latter, multiple times.  I often find it hard to focus during the Chaplet, but last weekend I found two different ways of praying it that, combined with the physicality of walking, held my attention. 

Each of the fifty times I prayed, "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world," I imagined:

1. Our Lord receiving one more blow from the whip
2. Jesus taking one more agonizing step under the weight of the Cross

Prayed while walking at a good clip - breathing a little heavier, with ankles a bit sore - it kept my focus on Jesus' pain, and how little my discomfort is in comparison ... and then I went ahead and united my little discomfort to His Passion.