[00:00] The Responsorial Psalm today encapsulates the mystery that we celebrate, and that is Divine Mercy, the greatest attribute of God, because mercy is not just another term for love. It is the highest love that one can possess, whether it be the mercy of God or

[00:35] whether it be the mercy that we show to others. The Responsorial Psalm, or the response to it, says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love is everlasting. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good." That is what we celebrate when we're celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday. It is the goodness of God, and from that goodness flows His mercy, because

[01:06] His love is everlasting. When we think of God's mercy, we think of what we can gain from it. We think of the fact that our Lord has forgiven us our sins, which is something that we should be thinking about, obviously, because we're benefactors of that goodness. But one of the things that we have to remember that our Lord wants us to understand is that

[01:36] Divine Mercy is something that is given in proportion to how merciful we are to those around us. How much do you want God's mercy? How much do you want to be transformed by His mercy? That is up to you, that's up to me, and it is up to the disposition of our hearts. As I said, Divine Mercy is the greatest attribute of God. It is a completely free

[02:09] gift, and it is offered to every single one of us, but it's deserved by none of us. And you may say, well, if it's offered, then why isn't it not deserved? It's something that goes beyond our natural capacity to receive. In a way, God gives us His mercy even though we are His enemies. In our first parents, we sinned against God, but our Lord gives

[02:42] us His mercy anyways. That's why mercy is the greatest attribute of God, because if we even think about ourselves, justice is giving something to someone that's due to a person. Well, what's due to us? After we fell through our first parents, who are the best of us, by the way, after we fell, what was due? Injustice, hell was due to us. God's mercy is giving us something that goes beyond what's due, and that which is a complete and

[03:20] utter gift. This mercy flows like a river from God's goodness, which is what we say when we talk about providence. So it flows like a river from the providence of God. It binds and transforms the lives of those who are disposed to His love and wants to give His special graces. "Be merciful even as your Father is merciful." That is what our Lord

[03:52] wants us to understand in order to be the true recipients of His mercy. The commandment of God is a new commandment to love one another as He Himself has loved us. And in loving one another, in trying to love one another, we realize pretty quickly, especially when our Lord wants us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, that naturally speaking, this love that He's asking of us goes beyond our natural abilities. It is something

[04:24] which we require the supernatural grace in order to fulfill, in order to live this mission that our Lord has given us to love others and to give mercy as freely as God gives it to us. We need His grace. Our Lord helps us from whatever angle we look at it. God gives us His help. And today we celebrate that feast of Divine Mercy. It's a feast day that St. John Paul II instituted after the writings of St. Faustina and the messages that

[04:59] our Lord gave to her. He mentioned this when he became Pope for the first time. He said, "In God's providence, I have been raised to the pontificate to usher in the era of mercy. And from the beginning, I consider this my special task and destiny. In this present situation of man, the Church and the world." Remember, this is a Supreme Pontiff who suffered directly at the hands of the Nazis, of the horrors of that war and the darkness that

[05:33] had spread over the whole world at that time. He had to forgive many times over. He had to be an instrument of God's mercy. And he gave us an example, just as all the saints give us an example. And today I want to remind us of at least one example, maybe a few examples in the lives of the saints. And the greatest example I could think of was the example of

[06:05] St. Maria Goretti, a little girl born in Nettuno, Italy in 1890. A little girl who grew up in poverty. She grew up with all the disadvantages that we pray that we do not have. And yet she overcame all these things. We have to remember, one of the things in

[06:36] our lives is that God's not always going to give us perfect happiness here in this life. In fact, He may give us and allow many things to happen to us. Many obstacles that we would consider obstacles. Many things that are like road bumps or speed bumps along the way. Sometimes our Lord will ask us to step up and be heroic. And we want to be ready. We want to be disposed for that. St. Maria Goretti teaches us that not all things in life are going to be cozy

[07:08] and comfortable. Many of the things our Lord allow us to befall us will be for our greater good. It will be for a great reward. But we have to have that vision of providence that everything happens according to God's will. And anything that happens to us that maybe God allows, but it was, it permits, but it was never fully part of His original plan, He will give us the strength to endure it and bring a greater good out of it. Maria

[07:40] Goretti, she was born, as I said, in 1890, born in poverty. Her family was so poor that they had to hire themselves out to landowners and till the land and be farmers for somebody else. And they received very little money for this, but they received, at least, a lodging. So for a few years, you know, from the time that St. Maria Goretti, little Maria was nine

[08:15] years old, her father and her mother worked on the farm, her mother doing all the domestic duties and the father doing the farmer's work in the fields. But then something happened, a tragedy took place and the father ended up being bit by a mosquito carrying the malaria virus, the parasite, and this ended up killing him. So Maria's father died when she was only 11 years old, in a terrible situation because now with five other children, Maria's mother,

[08:52] Assunta, was going to have to take up the burden of the farming. But Maria, wanting to alleviate the stress of her mother, told her that she would help with all the domestic duties and so that's what she did. Now there was another family that lived with Maria, the Goretti family, and they were by the last name Serenelli. And there was a young man, Alessandro, who was 20 years old,

[09:25] who helped out with many of the heavy tasks. So Assunta, the mother of Maria, always looked at him as a great help on the farm and to help with many of the things that she couldn't do. But Alessandro was not a good person at 20 years old. He was addicted to many vices and he looked at St. Maria Goretti with an agenda of wanting to do horrible things to her. And he always was looking

[10:00] for an opportunity. In fact, he would say many crude things to her, you know, sexual things, I guess you could say, and she would always run away from him. She didn't want anything to do with him. But she never told her mother because she was afraid that her mother would lose the help that she needed. So she just endured it. And then one day, when the mother and many of the other family members were all in the field and it was left to Maria to do what she normally did, which was bake and cook and clean in the house, Alessandro saw his opportunity. He had filed,

[10:37] you know, a file that, you know, for a lot of things on the farm you would use a file to sharpen things. And he took this file and he honed it down into a point to make it like a knife that had a wooden handle on it. He brought that with him up to the apartment of St. Maria Goretti. And he cornered her in the kitchen, and she was all alone, an 11-year-old girl. And he threatened her that he

[11:09] would kill her if she did not do what he wanted her to do. But St. Maria Goretti, with more courage than most of us would have, refused. And she told him, "Alessandro, this is a sin. We will go to hell." But Alessandro, he wouldn't hear no for an answer. And when she continued to refuse him, and he threatened to kill her, he became very angry, and he finally exploded and stabbed her nine times.

[11:53] He stabbed her so hard that the file went right through her to the other side. Six of the nine times. And the reason why the three times didn't go through her was because it hit her spine. That's how hard and how angry he was. And I know there's little children here listening and also on the live stream. But understand that it is all according to what God allowed in order to show His glory. Maria stood up for her faith and for purity.

[12:33] And she was willing to die. She collapsed on the floor, and Alessandro ran and hid and locked himself in his room. And then Maria regained consciousness again, bleeding. But she dragged herself to... Sorry, it's hard. Sometimes I get emotional when I'm thinking about it. But Maria dragged herself to the door that he had closed

[13:04] behind him when he went down the stairs, and she flipped the latch in order that she could maybe yell for help. And guess what? Alessandro heard her flip the latch. He thought she was dead. So he ran back up, and he stabbed her even more to complete 14 times that he stabbed her. And those were the final wounds that would end up being her demise. So she collapsed on the floor. He ran downstairs, locked himself in his room again. And finally, by the time they found

[13:39] her, she was already losing consciousness. One of the things was that her stomach was torn. So it was causing an infection because of the contents, I guess you could say. And they rushed her to the hospital. The doctors did all they could. And there was nothing they could do. But one of the things we have to understand, just how much she endured. When they needed to try to clean up the wounds and to stop the bleeding, they couldn't give her any anesthesia.

[14:17] And they had to open all her wounds up even more just to be able to get inside, in hopes that they might be able to save her. And she felt every single movement that they made. And she was also very thirsty. She was dehydrated from the loss of blood. And she was begging the doctors for water. But they could not give her any water because her stomach was torn, and it would cause even more problems. So a priest came and he told her, he said, "Maria, look at our Lord on the cross. He begged for water, but nobody

[15:01] would give Him any. Are you willing to offer that as a sacrifice for poor sinners?" And she said, "Yes, I'm willing." And this little 11-year-old girl never made a single sound after that. She was awake for everything. She was offering the pain and the suffering that she was enduring for the poor souls without any anesthesia. And finally, they had to close everything up because they knew that she wasn't

[15:34] going to make it. And the priest came to her side. And he asked her, "Maria, are you willing to forgive Alessandro?" And she said, "Yes, I'm willing to forgive him. And I want him to be with me in paradise." This little girl, not even knowing that Alessandro had no remorse, he had no sorrow at this point.

[16:12] We'll get to him in a second. But she was willing to forgive him and wanted him in paradise with her. And then she passed. Alessandro, for his part, lied the whole time. They arrested him, brought him to the judge, and he was saying that it wasn't his fault. He was defending himself against the attacks of Maria. Can you imagine? Of course, the judge didn't believe him. And the judge put him in jail for 30 years. And he was so angry. And he kept on saying, when he was going to jail,

[16:55] if she had only done what I wanted her to do, then she wouldn't have died. Think about that. He was unrepentant. In fact, he was so violent in the jail that they had to put him in solitary confinement for six years. Because everywhere he went, he would just fight with everybody. And he was angry. He didn't want mercy. He didn't want forgiveness. But he was enduring whatever he was enduring.

[17:27] And there might be a little bit of light I can shed on it in a bit. But then you think of, what did he do to the family? He did what he did to Maria. And she was willing to forgive him. But think of the mother. You mothers, you fathers out there, how would you react to this? How would you feel? It would be a terrible suffering. You would want to go down there and take care of business.

[18:03] And even more, Assunta, the mother. The father only died at 41, so she might have been even younger. But if you think about what he did to the family, because Assunta had nobody to help her, she had to give up all of her children. Her children were all taken away from her after she had just lost Maria. And she couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't even go to the funeral of St. Maria Goretti. Why? Because it was the last day that she had with her other children.

[18:38] So, and I apologize, it's hard to not hold back the emotion, but Assunta offered that up. Think about how angry it would have been. Think about our little things in our lives. She couldn't even have her children because she couldn't afford it anymore. Alessandro ruined her life. Ruined the family's life. Keep that in mind. Because Alessandro had no remorse. He didn't feel any remorse for anything.

[19:15] Until one day, when he was in solitary confinement, Maria Goretti, who wished that he was with her in paradise one day, appeared to him. And in this apparition, she didn't say anything to him, but in this apparition, she was picking white lilies. And as she picked the white lilies, she would give them one by one to Alessandro Serenelli. And by the time she had finished giving him these white lilies as a sign that she forgave him, he completely transformed.

[19:55] God's grace worked a miracle, a moral miracle in his soul. And from that moment on, he changed his life. He was repentant for what he did to that little girl. And he lived quite a holy life. So for the rest of the years that he was in prison, in fact, he had transformed so much that they allowed him, at a time when they never let anybody go early, they actually let him out early.

[20:26] But keep in mind what the mother had suffered. Alessandro, when he was released after serving 27 years, he went directly to the house of Assunta Goretti. He knocked on her door, and you can imagine, as a mother or as a father, having this man come and knock on your door after everything I just described, what she went through. She opened the door and she saw the murderer of her little child.

[21:03] And he said, "Assunta, do you remember me?" And she said, "Yeah, I remember who you are." And he asked her probably the hardest question to answer for a parent in that situation. "Assunta, do you forgive me?" And Assunta looked at him and said, "Alessandro, God has forgiven you. Maria has forgiven you. How could I not forgive you?" And not only did she forgive him, but she literally adopted him as her own son and took him in.

[21:47] That was December 24th, and they went to the Midnight Mass together and received Holy Communion. The example of Maria is something that goes beyond what we can imagine. To the heart of mercy. She was a living icon of mercy. The mercy that God wants of us to give to us, but also that we would show to others.

[22:23] Ask yourself, we ask ourselves about this mercy. Are we willing to show that mercy to others in our life? Alessandro wasn't just with the mother and received Communion with her, but he was there when the Holy Father canonized Maria Goretti in 1950. He was there with the mother.

[23:00] She went through the Passion. She went through the way of the cross, so to speak. She was able to, with her daughter, forgive the murderer, Alessandro, just as our Lord forgave those on the cross who were nailing Him. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Alessandro's life was transformed, and he shows us he actually ended up dying. Believe it or not, there's been many miracles at the intercession of Alessandro because he became so holy that people remarked he became a Franciscan lay brother.

[23:39] He chose the worst jobs all the time. He prayed constantly. He became mercy to other people. He became an example of holiness to others, and his cause for beatification is up. So think about the mercy that God has for the worst of sinners. Think of the mercy that God has that He would ask Assunta, He would ask any of us to raise ourselves to that level that we're willing to forgive someone who, I can't even imagine who you'd hate more? Someone who kills your daughter in such a fashion and then destroys your whole family for all those years.

[24:22] But this is just one example in the life of the Church, of the Catholic Church, of Christianity. One example of God's providence, His goodness that extends through all time, flowing through history from God into the lives of humble persons we look up to as saints, read the lives of the saints, as His instruments to others whose lives they touch.

[24:52] This love will continue in the world and will continue to flow through history as long as there are people like us who are willing to be like St. Maria Goretti, willing to extend mercy to others when others do not deserve it. Are we willing to be united to other streams of mercy, to become a river that flows into that great ocean which we call the ocean of mercy? "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

[25:24] And as St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, we all may have just a small drop to add to the ocean, but even that is enough for God. Do not let your little drop be lacking from this ocean. St. Faustina tells us, "I see that the smallest things done by a soul for the love of God sincerely have infinite value in God's eyes." Jesus tells us through the messages of St. Faustina about His image of mercy.

[25:59] "I am offering to My people a vessel by which they can continually draw upon My mercy." This vessel is my image. With these words, "Jesus, I trust in You." He wants us to trust in His mercy in order to receive His mercy. Think about Alessandro. Think of all the people in the world that have received His mercy. We can receive that same mercy.

[26:30] We have committed many sins in the past. Think about the sins you have committed in your lives. No one has committed greater sins than I have or Alessandro. But God is willing to give us His mercy. He offers us His mercy, His image as a vessel of His mercy by which, like a bucket, we can draw from that ocean.

[27:05] But He also wants us to become living vessels of His mercy by which others can draw from and gain His mercy. I ask all of you the question. Whether you are children here or whether you are adults, are you willing to think about in your lives whether you have been bullied, whether it is the same thing that comes up when you think about someone that you might not like. You might have received abuse from somebody in your life.

[27:38] You may have suffered various assaults from people, just as St. Maria Goretti has. You might have been overlooked, discarded, treated badly by other people. Are you willing to forgive those people? It is a choice that we make. We live on this life for just a short time. We only have so much time.

[28:09] Are we willing to become saints? Because there is nothing worse to think about in this life than not to become saints. But in order to do so, we might just have to exercise a heroic degree of mercy like St. Maria Goretti. "My daughter, let the whole world recognize My unfathomable mercy." It is a sign of the end times. Afterward there will be judgment.

[28:39] There will come the day of justice. But until that time, while we still have life within us, let them come to the fount of My mercy. Even the most hopeless of sinners is deserving of God's mercy, and it is this Divine Mercy which will shape and determine the future destiny of the world.

[29:09] You may hesitate. Some of you may have people in your life that you can't imagine forgiving. But think of this 11-year-old girl. Are you going to let her outdo you in her heroism of extending mercy to others, even those who don't deserve it, those who will not ever give you love in return, those who in fact will persecute you even more? The saints were willing. We all have that capacity.

[29:39] We can all add our little drop of mercy in the ocean, and it will have ripples through all eternity. And our lives will affect others just like St. Maria Goretti's did and still does to this day. You don't have to be afraid, as St. John Paul II, the herald of mercy, said when he was first pope. "Be not afraid." Just utter the words. Be willing at least to say, "Jesus, I trust in You."