Gospel Meditation

April 11, 2021
Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

What a wonderful joy fills us today as we ponder the inexhaustible mercy of God. “Mercy is the heart of God,” Pope Francis tells us. The image of a heart has been used to point to the very life source of a person as it is the organ that allows life to flow through our veins and sustain us.  Mercy is the heart of God. Imagine this dynamic, powerful, compassionate, piercing, embracing, loving, propelling, penetrating, absorbing, and enveloping, transforming presence of God flowing into the very depth of our souls. It is God’s mercy that allows blood to flow through our veins. It is God’s mercy that forms every atom of our being and leads us to what is true. God’s mercy reveals all superficiality and falsehood, and lays bare all distortions, empty promises, weakness, and sin.

“Mercy is the force that reawakens us to new life and instills in us the courage to look to the future with hope,” Pope Francis continues. God’s all forgiving, compassionate love is with us. When we finally believe and accept that Christ’s resurrected transfigured presence resides with us, we then find within us a strong confidence to accept life’s imperfections and disappointments and move on. Every day is a new adventure in new life. God leaves the past behind and opens doors to the future. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes we made yesterday. All that matters is what we do tomorrow and what we learn along the way. It is so easy to remain tethered and mired in the past, but there is no need to do so. God is all about tomorrow and the work God has yet to do in our lives.

Mercy gives birth to hope. Hope for the greatest of sinners and hope for the worst of disasters. There is nothing God cannot do and nothing God cannot fashion. After all, everything we know and treasure was once nothing, and look what God did with the nothing God had! The resurrected Christ stands before us with nail marks in his wrists and wounds on his body as a testament that not even injustice, suffering and death can trample over and destroy God’s mercy. What have we to fear? Why do we keep ourselves from peace? Our lack of faith prevents us from going forward and fully receiving the holiness God desires to breathe upon us. Breathe in God’s mercy, allow the wind of God’s presence to kiss all of your sins and caress all of your fears. Exhale peace.

©LPi

MEDITACIÓN EVANGÉLICO (Gospel Meditation)

11 de abril de 2021
2º Domingo de Pascua (La Divina Misericordia)

La Misericordia de Dios sigue manifestándose por medio de las apariciones de Jesús. Primero a María Magdalena y luego a los otros discípulos. El primer signo de este amor misericordioso de Dios se hace presente en la paz que Jesús ofrece a sus discípulos. “¡La paz este con ustedes!” (Juan 20:21).  Esa paz que nos ofrece a nosotros en la actualidad. La Paz de Cristo que vence los miedos a las complicaciones en el trabajo o en la familia. Que vence también el miedo a la pobreza material y espiritual. El miedo que teníamos o que tenemos de acercarnos a Dios en la Eucaristía por la pandemia, ese miedo que todos tenemos al contagio del virus por falta de cuidado de muchos que nos rodean.

Pidamos al Señor, en este Domingo de la Misericordia, reflexionando desde el fondo del corazón. Señor, que tu Resurrección nos libere del miedo, que estemos seguros que Tú siempre estás con nosotros. El Santo Papa San Juan Pablo II dijo sobre la misericordia de Dios lo siguiente: “Dios, Padre misericordioso, que has revelado tu amor en tu Hijo Jesucristo y lo has derramado sobre nosotros en el Espíritu Santo, Consolador, te encomendamos hoy el destino del mundo y de todo hombre”. Es conveniente ahora que volvamos la mirada a este misterio: lo están sugiriendo múltiples experiencias de la Iglesia y del hombre contemporáneo; lo exigen también las invocaciones de tantos corazones humanos, con sus sufrimientos y esperanzas, sus angustias y expectación”. ¿Qué piensas tú de la Divina Misericordia? ¿Eres devoto de ella?

©LPi