In conversation with different friends through the course of last week, they have found people to be unfriendly and even downright aggressive without provocation. It does not take much to even get friends upset for people are so protective of their own rights and views as individuals that they are intolerant of their friends' alternative points of view.
There is no room for dialogue, no attempt to understand, and no benefit of the doubt is given for others' perceived failings and foibles. No longer do we walk a mile in others' shoes to empathize and therefore forgive their shortcomings.
B said to me it is as if all the stars and planets are not in alignment for everyone around her is in disagreement. I put it down to city living where we are stressed out, suffering from lack of sleep, and always in a rush to get somewhere so don't let anybody get in my way. Technology doesn't help for we plug into it and purposefully create a distance between ourselves and others. The focus is therefore insular and narcissistic.
Today's Feast of the Divine Mercy is a timely reminder to me to not give in to the lack of mercy I find all around me. It is all too easy for me to get irritated and criticize others' behaviour and consequently act like a rigid, humourless, self-righteous and perfect idiot who knows it all.
I don't want to be that person for it is so bad for my health, physically and spiritually. What will help me in becoming and staying the joyful Easter person I aspire to is Divine Mercy. On my own I will fail, but if I rely on God's unending source of mercy and emulate Jesus, who forgave even those who caused His death, then I have a good chance.
As Father John Bosco reminded us today at mass, the water and blood that flowed from Jesus's pierced side represents baptism, the Eucharist and healing. When Jesus asked Thomas to touch His side, it was an act of love, while the wound itself was one of love and mercy. I have never seen it that way but Father JB was right. Instead of getting impatient or frustrated, Jesus reached out to Thomas lovingly, forgiving him his doubtful pessimism or lack of faith.
Because Jesus was gentle with Thomas, Thomas was sold. My Lord and my God. He was completely transformed because Jesus did not give up on him. Thomas would later travel to "the ends of the earth" to preach the Good News, going as far as India where he would die for his religious zeal.
This is what an act of love can do. It can make a radical difference. It can heal and change people for the better. It can be redemptive, a moment of grace, not just for the receiver but for the giver as well.
Love as the world celebrates and obsesses over is usually of the romantic ilk and more self-serving, but love in its purest form is the willingness to undergo suffering for the good of the other and that is the variety and quality of love I want in my life.
It is patient, kind, forbearing, forgiving, enduring, full of hope and all the wonderful things enumerated by Saint Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13. This is the love that flows from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a salvific love that can be mine, and yours.
To celebrate this great feast properly, I resolve to constantly ask for mercy, divine, no less, and to immerse myself in it. Hopefully I will be like the sinful woman in Luke's Gospel in chapter seven who because she experienced forgiveness for a great many sins showed great love, and mercy.
For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world.
There is no room for dialogue, no attempt to understand, and no benefit of the doubt is given for others' perceived failings and foibles. No longer do we walk a mile in others' shoes to empathize and therefore forgive their shortcomings.
B said to me it is as if all the stars and planets are not in alignment for everyone around her is in disagreement. I put it down to city living where we are stressed out, suffering from lack of sleep, and always in a rush to get somewhere so don't let anybody get in my way. Technology doesn't help for we plug into it and purposefully create a distance between ourselves and others. The focus is therefore insular and narcissistic.
Today's Feast of the Divine Mercy is a timely reminder to me to not give in to the lack of mercy I find all around me. It is all too easy for me to get irritated and criticize others' behaviour and consequently act like a rigid, humourless, self-righteous and perfect idiot who knows it all.
I don't want to be that person for it is so bad for my health, physically and spiritually. What will help me in becoming and staying the joyful Easter person I aspire to is Divine Mercy. On my own I will fail, but if I rely on God's unending source of mercy and emulate Jesus, who forgave even those who caused His death, then I have a good chance.
As Father John Bosco reminded us today at mass, the water and blood that flowed from Jesus's pierced side represents baptism, the Eucharist and healing. When Jesus asked Thomas to touch His side, it was an act of love, while the wound itself was one of love and mercy. I have never seen it that way but Father JB was right. Instead of getting impatient or frustrated, Jesus reached out to Thomas lovingly, forgiving him his doubtful pessimism or lack of faith.
Because Jesus was gentle with Thomas, Thomas was sold. My Lord and my God. He was completely transformed because Jesus did not give up on him. Thomas would later travel to "the ends of the earth" to preach the Good News, going as far as India where he would die for his religious zeal.
This is what an act of love can do. It can make a radical difference. It can heal and change people for the better. It can be redemptive, a moment of grace, not just for the receiver but for the giver as well.
Love as the world celebrates and obsesses over is usually of the romantic ilk and more self-serving, but love in its purest form is the willingness to undergo suffering for the good of the other and that is the variety and quality of love I want in my life.
It is patient, kind, forbearing, forgiving, enduring, full of hope and all the wonderful things enumerated by Saint Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13. This is the love that flows from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a salvific love that can be mine, and yours.
To celebrate this great feast properly, I resolve to constantly ask for mercy, divine, no less, and to immerse myself in it. Hopefully I will be like the sinful woman in Luke's Gospel in chapter seven who because she experienced forgiveness for a great many sins showed great love, and mercy.
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