“Divine Mercy! Rah, rah, rah!” Right?
Right. However…
We have come to Low Sunday, Dominica in albis, the Octave of Easter. I reviewed something of what Fathers of the Church had to say about our Gospel passage on this famous Sunday: John 20:19-31.
Pope St. Gregory the Great (+604) preached on this very passage in the Basilica of St. John Lateran on the 1st Sunday after Easter. In other words, liturgically, today.
Here is the very end of his sermon, which sheds a needed light on the theme of “divine mercy”.
Thus Gregory the Great:
Consider again, beloved brethren, this important truth, and carefully endeavour to be preserved from the eternal perdition.
These Easter-days are celebrated with great pomp and magnificence; yet our duty is to make ourselves worthy of arriving at the eternal Festivals.
You endeavour to be present at these feastdays, which pass and disappear; try, then, your utmost to be one day present, all together, at the never-ending celebration in heaven. What would it profit you to assist at our festivals now, were you never to be admitted to the festivities of the angels in heaven?
Our present feast-days are only the shadow of those we are expecting, and, though year after year we are celebrating them, we are longing for those never-ending days in the kingdom of God. Renew in your hearts the desire of the eternal festivities by the celebration of the annual earthly festivals.
Let the happiness granted to us in the present time penetrate us in such a way that we continue sighing for the eternal happiness prepared for us in heaven, and ardently desired by us on earth. Prepare yourselves for that eternal rest by amending your lives and practising virtue and holiness. Never forget that He Who in His Resurrection was meekness itself, will be terrible when coming to judge the world.
On this awful day He will appear surrounded by Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Principalities and Powers.
On that day heaven and earth and all the elements, being the ministers of His wrath, will be in a general conflagration.
May this terrible Judge be ever present to the eyes of your mind, that, penetrated by a salutary fear of His severe judgment, that is to be held, you may confidently expect His corning.
Let us fear now, that we may be without fear then, and this fear will help us to avoid sin and work out our salvation. For I tell you that the more we are now afraid to rouse the anger of our Judge against us, the greater will be our confidence when we appear before Him at the end of the world.
Let us strive in our liturgical celebrations both to anticipate the beauty of the heavenly liturgy before the throne of God, and also to encounter within those sacred mysteries the mystery which is the remedy for our fear of death.
Isn’t this in part the problem in the tension between the Novus Ordo and the Vetus Ordo? The Novus Ordo tends to stress eschatological joy. There is nothing wrong with that. However, the Vetus Ordo also stresses eschatological joy, but it also tells you how to obtain it. That means all of those references to sin, guilt, penance, propitiation that were stripped out of the Novus Ordo prayers. There is no tension between the Novus Ordo and Vetus Ordo regarding a strong, hopeful view of participation in the joy of Heaven. They both do.
If our liturgical worship does not prepare us truly for the moment in which we come to the Judge, then our liturgical worship has not provided what we truly need. How Mass is celebrated is important. But it isn’t only the outward signs and gestures, style of celebration, language, posture, vestments, art, architecture. Those are important. So are the texts themselves. They are, in the long run, critically important.
Lastly, GO TO CONFESSION.
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Thank you Fr. Z! We still believe in hell, right? I had a talk with my pastor about hell the other day, and he looked at me like I said I’d found a unicorn. I heard a former Chicago gang member give a testimony about how he got shot, died, and went to hell. I found him super-compelling for two reasons. One, he said that he couldn’t talk about his experience for a long time, and in my nothing opinion that is a hallmark of a true supernatural experience – the strong inclination to keep it to yourself. Two, he said that everyone in hell knew what sins had brought everyone there, and the sin that brought the most people to hell … was gossip. I don’t think a salt-of-the-earth former gang member would come up with gossip as the most common hell-worthy sin on his own. I went to confession the day after I heard it; I had my 22-year old son listen, and he went immediately as well. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV0SmcxLJoY I’d love to hear others opinions of it. Lord have mercy on us. Thanks again Fr. Z.
In these days, everyone remembers from the Gospel of St. John, “Neither will I condemn thee” to the woman accused of adultery. But we conveniently forget or ignore his next words, “Go, and now sin no more.” When I was caught up by modernism, I was just as bad, but now I go to Confession regularly and work on sinning no more.
@MB: thank you for posting that. I saw it on another blog and I watched a bit of it and it will straighten you up big time. As you say it took him awhile to speak about it which I think also speaks to it being genuine. He’s not a Catholic so let’s pray for his conversion. Somehow the modern thinking has become we are all going to heaven and it’s easier to get in that we think. Funny the saints don’t say that. The fewness of the saved comes to mind. I have nothing against Devine Mercy at all but frequent confession and the staying on the narrow path is a must for the salvation of souls. Nothing else matters but saving our souls.
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Preached on the Introit x Quasi modo…. St.Peter warned about consuming false doctrines that would poison the soul. We ought know the faith inside out. Have a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Roman Catechism and a Catholic Bible.
>>Funny the saints don’t say that.
That is because i) you have a specific sort of saints in mind, and may remember those who shocked you more than the others; ii) they are talking to sinners who are believing Christians – in, say, a “popular mission” setting; there is a faith all the involved at least claim lip-service to; but some may need to be shocked out of sinful habits; iii) or else they are talking to those progressing in the spiritual life, whom they counsel, and who are best advised to be humble about their own perspective, which in addition to the virtuousness of humility also brings a lot of practical benefits.
St. Francis de Sales is really a nice and (in the best sense) funny example for this; I think it is from the Philothea. The worldly people, he says, will harass the dévote with, among other things, the reproach: “One can go to Heaven without all of this.” Whereto he advises her to speak humbly about the fact that she needs it and to see to it that she does not fall etc. etc.
All quite true, and meant by the doctor-of-the-Church to be said truthfully and in a spirit of humility. But I would be very mistaken if it wasn’t also an excuse; which does not contradict its truth. (The best excuses are truthful ones.) There is a marked between-the-lines attitude that says: “And besides, don’t spoil my fun. It is, in spite of – but that doesn’t belong here -, fun to me to be with God; who are you to tell me that I should do the bare minimum to go to Heaven, so that the rest of the time I can please you. Mary hath chosen the better part, and it shall not be taken away from her, nor, however unworthy I am to compare myself to Mary of Bethany, from me.”
Of course she can’t say that; it would at least endanger her humility and certainly be discourteous. But the fact remains that we have, sometimes, to carve out the time to devote to our Lord out of our life with cunning (though preferably not with lies). And to take something that is actually true – there is danger of falling – and even humbles oneself in order to get that time is rather cunning.
As far as I know, the saints have not addressed unbelieving and (with a superficial concealment on it) despairing masses with the prospect of Hell. (There is some word by St. John Henry on the fact that addressing them in such a manner elicits blasphemy rather than conversion.) So, it makes a lot of difference who is the addressée.
As for the objective question, it really is a matter of the Lord who is to judge (in the most literal sense). Personally, when I see someone I like who is not a believing Catholic (and that happens rather often; and I do think “the love of the world [and people in it] was set in your hearts by the Father of All, and He does not plant to no purpose”, J. R. R. Tolkien, Akallabêth, can be defended as a statement about the real world also), I remind myself that God likes this person more than I do. But in any case it really is for the Lord to judge.
Regarding the YouTube video linked in this thread, the man may be sincere in what he says, but he claims that Christianity is an “ancient African religion.” Viewer beware.
@ GregV
Possibly just s geographically inaccurate generalisation. I took him to mean Africa including the Holy Land (OK, I know, but some people aren’t good at geography) and ancient meaning “anything before the 20th century, before modern times”). Give the man some slack.
Thank you, Father! I am traveling for work this week and had the happy opportunity to hear Mass at the Dominican parish where my conference is located. Father’s homily stressed the differences between what the world thinks mercy is (namely, either indulgence or tolerance) vs. what God’s mercy truly is (namely, His love for us who turn to Him in repentance and seek His forgiveness). There are many calls today for “mercy” where mercy is misunderstood as “not making others uncomfortable,” but true mercy, Divine Mercy, is predicated on Truth and the recognition that we have to live in accord with that Truth.