Mercy and truth have met…
Justice and peace have kissed.
In one of his messages, our Lord asked St. Faustina to snuggle close to his mercy on the Feast of Mercy, and that is what I did yesterday. I wish I could convince everyone what a great feast the Second Sunday of Easter is and how willing the Lord is to embrace each soul who approaches him, trusting in his mercy and love.
While at adoration one day a few weeks ago, I was thinking to myself how if I had known before what I know about myself now, I would probably have killed myself. I thanked our Lord for ‘putting up’ with me for so many years, hiding from my sight these ’secret’ sins. (I think I’m talking about the root sins, the predominant fault from which actual sin emerges.) I pondered the thought however - although keeping my secret for myself, since others wouldn’t understand what I meant. Until yesterday, when I read the following locution from our Lord to St. Faustina, I didn’t really understand it either:
“You see what you are of yourself, but do not be frightened of this. If I were to reveal to you the whole misery of what you are, you would die of terror. However, be aware of what you are. Because you are such misery, I have revealed to you the whole ocean of my mercy.” [718]
I have more understanding…
In the morning meditation on the Gospel, Magnificat featured a reflection from M. Marie Des Douleurs, the Foundress of the Benedictine Sisters of Jesus Crucified. (Don Marco is chaplain to the nuns in Connecticut, and has translated a couple of Mother’s writings.) If memory serves me, M. Marie had some character weaknesses - nothing scandalous, really. I believe she may have had a few bouts with drinking, as well as a penchant for drama - or so it seems to me - it is all hearsay on my part to write about it however. (Don Marco can correct me if he likes.)
Nevertheless, her defects became the “happy faults” that established her in humility… she came to understand “the whole of her misery” through them. Likewise, through her own struggles, she understood the weaknesses and temptations her beloved priests were subjected to - on some level, she shared in them. (Her order of contemplative nuns was established to pray for priests.) Our Lord often permits our falls, even serious failings, in order that we can become more humble after we repent, because if we are not conscious of our misery, we cannot understand the rest of our Lord’s message to Faustina:
“Because you are such great misery, I have revealed the whole ocean of my mercy. Your trust in me forces me to continually grant you graces. You have great and incomprehensible rights over my Heart, for you are a daughter of complete trust. You would not have been able to bear the magnitude of the love which I have for you if I had revealed it to you fully here on earth. I often give you a glimpse of it, but know that this is only an exceptional grace from me. My love and mercy know no bounds.” [718]
Little Souls
Little souls like Therese and Faustina acknowledged they were preserved from many failings and sins by a special grace, yet they understood well their own misery and admitted that if it were not for grace, they too were capable of serious sin. Both Therese and Faustina especially wanted souls to know this, lest the weakest of us become discouraged and fail to have confidence in the Divine Mercy, since it is confidence and love that attracts the Divine Mercy.
From what I have learned of Mother Marie Des Douleurs, I believe she also was a little soul - maybe more like the rest of us who daily fall and rise on our spiritual journey. Perhaps there was an illusion of grandness about her personality, even a certain flamboyant idealism, which was only tempered by the gradual awareness of her own shortcomings and failings, whereby she understood her supernatural vocation was sustained by sheer grace and mercy.
We only become truly humble and trusting of the Divine Mercy in and through the realization of our misery, and for some of us, this understanding is only possible through our continuous falling and rising.
.
The roar of the waters.
deep calls unto deep…
mercy calls unto misery,
our misery
calls unto his mercy…
in the roar of the waters -
such tears of shame and sorrow…
engulfed in the flow
of the blood and the water…
wherein mercy and truth meet,
and justice and peace embrace.
.
[Photo: M. Marie Des Douleurs from Vultus Christi - read about her here. Don Marco - please correct me if I got it wrong regarding M. Marie.]