MERCIFULNESS HERE AND NOW
FR. JAROSŁAW GRABOWSKI
I think that all of us are thinking how it is with God’s Mercifulness. What is it, in fact? We all learnt at school that ‘God is the Just Judge who rewards for the good and punishes for the bad’, and this image of God the Judge exists strongly in our minds. And what about mercifulness? For us, this is often a handful of good intentions, feelings. If we wonder more deeply, we have an image of Merciful Jesus in our minds, we are thinking about Chaplet to Divine Mercifulness or often an abstract idea of spreading mercifulness about which we have heard a lot.
Whereas mercifulness is God’s DNA coexisting with God’s justice. As s. Teresa de la Fuente says in an interview ‘Mercifulness in the Filipino way’ placed in the current issue of ‘Niedziela’, ‘God’s Mercifulness is God who is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is embodied mercifulness. He revealed it in his whole life…
Today it concerns the fact that we should accept this truth about Divine Mercifulness with heart, invite Alive God to our everyday life. This will naturally lead us something more – we will want to be an image of Divine Mercifulness to others and abstract ideas about its significance will become real in us.
Today the world really needs to realize what Divine Mercifulness is and return to God like to a safe resort. When evil is shouting, it is seen even in such tragic and particular events as the fire in the Notre Dame cathedral, we need only one thing – getting emerged in Divine Mercifulness in our everyday life. It is said about the events in Paris that this is an image of Europe on fire and it is difficult for us not to think so. These events are painful for us, but in this whole tragedy there is also something positive – Paris, full of riots and hatred recently, began to pray anew. And undoubtedly, in this tragedy, we can also see God who is calling us to come to Him. He is waiting and loves is infinitely.
Merciful God is close and particular. He wants us to be His witnesses here and now. He wants us – gifted by Him – to bring people Alive God, resigning from our egoism every day, noticing our poor neighbours or maybe only a worse day of our husbands, wives, children, mothers, or brothers. Only then will the spark of Divine Mercifulness will come also to us.
Translated by Aneta Amrozik
Niedziela 17/2019 (28 IV 2019)