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The
Catholic Church teaches us seven works of mercy pertaining
to the body and seven pertaining to the soul. We call
them the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
We read about
the corporal works of mercy in the Gospel of St. Matthew,
Chapter 25, where Jesus speaks of the Last Judgment.
He will ask each and every one of us: When did you feed
Me when I was hungry? When did you give Me a drink when
I was thirsty? When did you give Me clothes to wear
when I had none? When did you give Me a place to live
when I was homeless? When did you welcome Me when I
was a stranger, or come and visit Me when I was in jail?
Or come to comfort Me when I was sick in bed in the
hospital? Or in the nursing home? Because as often as
you did this to the least of your brothers and sisters,
you did it to Jesus Christ!
“And
yet,” Jesus tells St. Faustina,
“spiritual
mercy is much more
meritorious” (Diary,
1317) Spiritual mercy pertains to the soul’s
salvation. Jesus tells us that to show mercy in spirit,
we need no permission from anyone, we need no storage
room in which to store material goods to give away.
We can show mercy in spirit all the time!
The first spiritual
work of mercy is to admonish the sinner.
Am I my brother’s keeper? Of course I am! God
tells Ezekiel in the Old Testament, “Warn
the sinner for Me! If you do not, the sinner will die
in his sin, but know that you will carry the greater
responsibility because you did not speak out.”
(see Ezekiel 3:17-21)
For example,
if you know a woman who is contemplating having an abortion,
You can reach out to her. Maybe she doesn’t understand
that abortion is literally killing an innocent baby
! Explain this to her with love. Or maybe you
know of someone who is in a homosexual relationship.
St. Paul speaks openly: homosexuals living in sin will
not enter heaven! (1 Cor 6:9; Rom 1: 24-32; Eph 5: 1-5)
Can we look at our brother or sister, who is living
in such a state, and keep silent knowing that he or
she is on the road to damnation? We take the responsibility
on our shoulders.
Maybe you know
of someone living in the state of adultery. And if such
a person in ignorance approaches Holy Communion, that’s
even worse! St. Paul says that if you receive Holy Communion
in a state of sin, you receive it to your condemnation.
(1 Cor 11: 27) Reach out to your brother or sister.
Teach them. Today because of a lack
of faith, so many people walk into the Catholic church,
where Jesus is, immodestly dressed. Jesus
is Present in Catholic Churches! Jesus,
who walked the earth 2000 years ago, lives in the Tabernacle
in the Host. Jesus Christ is truly alive and hidden
in the Eucharist. He tells St. Faustina,
“My child, do you fear the God of
mercy? My holiness does not prevent Me from being
merciful. Behold, for you I have established a throne
of mercy on earth - the tabernacle - and from this throne
I desire to enter into your heart. I am not surrounded
by a retinue or guards. You can come to Me at any moment,
at any time; I want to speak to you and desire to grant
you grace.” (Diary, 1485)
Jesus is there. And yet, we come into
God’s house without reverence, immodestly dressed.
If we were to see the thousands upon thousands of angels
in every Catholic Church adoring Jesus in the Eucharist,
we too would approach Him in silent adoration. It is
so important to reach out to our brothers and sisters
to lead them on the right path. Sometimes we even see
people come into church chewing gum. You would never
go to a banquet chewing gum! And you’re coming
to a heavenly banquet when you come to Mass. Jesus Christ
is dying and rising from the dead for you on that altar
through this Holy Sacrifice that the priest offers.
This is why we need a deep faith. Our faith will teach
us how not to offend Our Lord by our style of dress,
actions, words, speech.
The other
Spiritual Works of Mercy are: counsel the doubtful,
instruct the uninformed, be
patient with those in error, forgive offenses, comfort
the sorrowful, pray for the living and the dead.
Do you realize
that every time we pray the Our Father we are calling
God’s judgment upon ourselves, because we say
“Lord, forgive me in the measure that I forgive
my neighbor.” (Mt 6:12) Which means, if
I hold a grudge, if I carry resentment, if someone said
an unkind word to me and I have this pain in my heart,
that I refuse to look at them or speak to them, that
resentment blocks God’s grace from entering my
soul. It’s not even hurting the other person;
it’s hurting me! And if I can’t forgive,
then I will not be forgiven.
There was a woman
who told us this story: her daughter had just graduated
from high school and left home, and she and her daughter
were totally at enmity with each other. The mother realized
in hearing the message about mercy that we must forgive
in order to be forgiven in order to be free. So she
sought out her daughter, reconciled with her and made
peace with her. Then suddenly the daughter died in a
car accident. The mother was filled with joy and peace
because she and her daughter were free through forgiveness.
How important is forgiveness! It is a terrible,
terrible sin not to forgive, because it breeds hatred.
Hatred is totally the opposite of love.
This is why
Jesus says, “Oh,
if only souls
knew how
to gather eternal treasure for themselves they would
not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment
with their mercy.” (Diary,
1317) Our Lord teaches us that we pay Him
the greatest reverence and give Him the greatest glory
when we show mercy to each other.
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