3rd Sunday after Pentecost 13.6.21 The Lost sheep
In this month of the Sacred Heart we are especially glad to honour Our Lord under that title, and to ask for His merciful attention to all who need that mercy.
The Lord seeks out the lost, and so do we under His guidance and power.
He has a real love for the lost, being able to see these people as His own children.
It is much like a parent still looking out for the child who has taken wrong turnings and is in great trouble at present (eg prodigal son).
The parent still loves the wayward child, whereas the general public might have contempt for that same ‘child’.
The lost can include some very unpopular people, such as murderers, rapists, dictators, fraudsters, sex abusers…
The first reaction to such people can be to want to ‘string them up’ like a lynching party. There is a real desire to inflict hurt of some kind on the offending person.
But the Sacred Heart sees all these people as lost children, who still could recover the right way if they would respond to His mercy.
Whether they respond or not the love is still there; God never ceases to love His children.
Regardless of our feelings we ask that God forgive freely. We will not try to direct where He can or cannot be merciful.
We cannot separate mercy into categories of deserving or undeserving. Mercy is by definition undeserved. If we deserved mercy it would not be mercy, but justice.
Mercy is when we have no other answer than the saving death of Christ. We take refuge in Him entrusting ourselves to His mercy, which we know He is willing to give.
God is always willing to forgive; the sinners are not always ready to ask for that forgiveness.
Many would fight vigorously against any acknowledgement of God, or their obligations to Him.
Others would like to be forgiven, but are not prepared to take serious steps towards conversion of heart.
To receive mercy from God we have to be at least partially sorry for our sins.
Our prayer can help us be sorry on our own behalf, and we hope to generate some grace which will move the hearts of others towards sorrow.
The more people asking with real fervour, and backed up with penance, the more the likelihood of conversion of heart in hardened sinners.
Our Lord promises us, through the Sacred Heart, that any
efforts we make to extend His mercy will bear fruit. Sinners
will find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
Lukewarm souls shall become fervent. Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high
perfection.
I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
We seek to change the atmosphere; to offer blessing for curse, to believe in goodness even when there is very little in evidence.
God does not need our prayers to excite His mercy; He has the disposition of mercy, anyway, being always ready to forgive.
What He does need from us is the same disposition (if not in intensity, at least along the same lines).
He entrusts the wretched of the world to us; He waits on what we will do.
Did not Our Lady say at Fatima that many go to hell simply because no one will pray for them? Therefore if we pray we will save souls from hell, and there is no better use of our time than that!
Let us overcome our own distaste for sinners, particularly some types of sinners, and keep up a storm of prayer and penance.
The time is probably short for the human race, so we must make haste to help; and in any case there are always people dying, and many of those would be in a bad way, spiritually. They need our prayer; and we gladly comply.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
No comments:
Post a Comment