Mercy, God’s ultimate love for us
By Fr. Roy Cimagala Chaplain
Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)
Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
CHRIST was not contented only with offering forgiveness to those who crucified him while still hanging on the cross and just moments before his death. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do,” he said. (Lk 23,34) He wanted that mercy to offered all throughout time by giving his apostles the power to forgive.
“Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” (Jn 20,22-23) This is how great God’s love is for us. Let’s hope that we too can channel that same love, at least to some degree, among ourselves.
We need to know what is involved in imparting this divine mercy. Yes, for this purpose we have to study well the doctrine of our faith and morals, now authoritatively taught by the Church magisterium. We need to be generous with our time and effort so that that divine mercy can be readily given to everyone.
This way we can hope to be father, a friend, a judge and a doctor to the others insofar as their spiritual and moral lives are concerned.
More than that, we really should pray so that we can see more directly and reflect in our attitudes, our thoughts, words and deeds the very passion, death and resurrection of Christ which in the end is the very substance of divine mercy.
The ideal situation is that we be filled with holy desires to ask for forgiveness, to atone and make reparation for our sins and the sins of others. It’s a mindset that we have to deliberately cultivate, always getting inspiration from the example of Christ himself.
I wonder if our idea of what Christian life ought to be includes this very important factor. Until we have these desires to dispense divine mercy to others can we sincerely say that we are truly Christian, another Christ if not Christ himself, as we ought to be.
In our daily examination of conscience, let us try to see if we have been doing something concrete in this regard. Are we willing to bear the sins of others, in an effort to reflect Christ’s attitude toward all of us who are all sinners?
It is indeed a tall order to be able to disburse this divine mercy to everyone. Even more, it is an impossible task, for how can a human instrument, no matter how gifted he is intellectually, morally and spiritually, ever think that he can give God’s mercy, so full of mysteries that simply go beyond even the most brilliant and smart methods we can ever develop?
I shudder at the thought that a human instrument has been given the responsibility to dispense the very mercy of God to penitent sinners. Thus, prayers have been formulated to calm down the apprehensions of priests before hearing confessions, and to make them aware of what they need to be, to have, and to do.
To dispense mercy is simply to distribute it from a sure source that can never be depleted, since God is rich in mercy. He is never sparing in giving it. In fact, this divine mercy is given to us in abundance.
And as long as the human instruments and those who would like to avail of it have at least the minimum proper intentions and dispositions, and the constitutive acts of the sacrament of divine mercy are done, that is, there is contrition, confession and penance, then that divine mercy is disbursed.
The effectiveness of the sacrament of divine mercy depends more on the will and power of God as carried out by Christ than on the qualities of the ministers and the penitents.