Praise to be Jesus and Mary.
In today's Gospel passage from Luke chapter 6,
our Lord's words can all be summarized
in that one statement of His,
that injunction to all of His followers
to all of us, be merciful,
just as also your Father is merciful.
Christ had come to us here on earth
to reveal the whole truth about God.
This we know very well.
And particularly that God is merciful,
something that was revealed in the Old Testament,
though imperfectly,
but with Christ, this is revealed to its perfection
in all of its magnificence and clarity,
that God is infinitely merciful
and that God is mercy, mercy itself.
And Christ came that we might not only be
restored to a friendship with God, our Heavenly Father,
but that we might,
furthermore, you know, be His children,
to be made His children, you know,
through the grace received in baptism,
a grace of adoption.
So with Christ, with His grace,
we can truly say, Abba, Father,
to our Heavenly Father.
And what a beautiful thing that is.
And we can say that in all truth,
to know that we are children,
we are children of God, in Christ.
But as children of our Heavenly Father,
we have to live,
we have to be like Him.
It should take effect in our lives in some way.
We have to be like Him,
particularly in His holiness.
God is infinitely holy.
We as His children have to therefore be holy.
We have to be holy in the way we act,
you know, putting into practice,
not just the virtues, but the supernatural virtues,
you know, which Christ shows to us in His life,
and which we're enabled to do
through the power of His grace
and the Holy Spirit working within us.
We're supposed to act in particular,
as Christ did, as children of our Heavenly Father,
by practicing mercy.
Mercy which our Lord continually practiced,
in a sense, you know, towards His creatures,
and still practices that towards all.
Mercy which doesn't oppose His justice, of course.
God is infinitely just.
But His mercy complements His justice.
In fact, mercy,
divine mercy,
presupposes divine justice
and brings it to a certain perfection.
You know, that order is reestablished.
You know, that wrongs committed are made right.
That punishment and reparation
are brought about, are fulfilled.
While at the same time, with mercy,
you know, God reaches out still, you know, to the poor,
the poor sinner, to the prodigal son,
the prodigal daughter, you know, hoping, as it were,
for his conversion, her conversion,
so that there might be true freedom restored,
true freedom experienced,
the freedom of the children of God.
It's a gift of God, and with that, everlasting life.
In our own lives, therefore, we do have to,
to be merciful, just as our Father is merciful.
It's an injunction, a commandment for all of us to follow,
to practice mercy, to be merciful.
How do we do that?
How often?
Where do we put that into practice, this virtue of mercy?
Always and everywhere.
Amen.
We are to practice mercy and be merciful.
Generically speaking, yes, always and everywhere,
towards everyone, but specifically, you know,
concretely, you know, with those who have offended us.
And not one of us is exempt from having been offended
in some way by others.
It just comes with the lot of being born in the human family.
You know, and living in society with other people,
fallen sinners, as we are, ourselves,
that there is inevitable friction,
you know, wrongs committed, and so forth, offenses,
which we experience.
So we have to practice mercy, in particular, you know,
towards those concrete individuals
that we have been offended by in our lives, whether it was,
you know, an offense that was rather light,
or an offense that was, you know, very great,
a very serious wrong experienced in our lives,
or if it was rather recent,
or whether it was a long time ago,
maybe even many decades ago,
we've experienced this offense.
You know, we're supposed to practice mercy towards the others
without exception.
And concretely, you know, with those whom we live with,
you know, our family members, our brothers and sisters,
our parents, relatives, our next-door neighbors,
our friends, here too, there are concrete ways,
very specific ways in which we can practice mercy.
In this way, living out
a life of mercy towards others, you know,
will lead to us being what Saint Faustina describes
in her diary, will be most like our Lord in that way,
when we practice mercy.
As she said, we resemble God most when we practice mercy.
You know, those are her words, or our Lord's words to her.
So we want to resemble our Lord most,
and we can when we practice mercy.
The fruit of this, the result for us,
our Lord gives to us in today's passages
of practicing mercy.
And he says, you know,
forgive or be merciful and you will be forgiven.
So if we forgive, we'll be forgiven.
If we're merciful, we'll receive mercy.
It's that simple.
And contrary wise, if we don't forgive,
we won't be forgiven.
If we don't practice mercy, we won't receive mercy.
It's that simple.
Something that we should never forget,
so as to not practice it.
So remembering that will be motivated to, you know,
to always practice it.
Forgiveness, mercy.
Furthermore, a fruit of this is virtue,
mercy or forgiveness, is peace.
You know, peace of soul.
This is something that all of us desire
and what the Lord wants to give to all of us,
each and every one of us.
It's a gift of God.
And, for the Christians, it's a gift of God.
It's a gift of God.
For the Christians, it's a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
So peace.
Something that the world needs desperately today.
You know, so many wars still taking place.
You know, so much violence.
So much injustice.
And the result of that is, you know, inquietude.
You know, a lack of peace.
True peace from God, from above.
But we as Christians, we're called to be salt of the earth, light of the world, try to bring
the gift, this great gift of God's peace to others.
And so we should invoke our Lord for that gift, the gift of his peace in us, and he'll
give it to us, provided we continue to be merciful to others.
So practically, let us put into practice mercy, always and everywhere, in our deeds, with
deeds of mercy, in our words, words of mercy, and at the very least, with our prayers, praying
that God's mercy might take effect, not only for us,
but for others, for the whole world, for those that are most in need of God's mercy.
And we conclude with our Lord's words, reaffirming all that he has taught about mercy, summed
up in his Sermon on the Mount, that one beatitude, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy.
Praise be Jesus and Mary.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.