It’s so easy to get Divine Mercy all wrong.
I can so easily become confused because I have a mind that is darkened by sin and prone to listen to the lies of the enemy.
I was reading in St. Faustina’s Diary recently when I came to one of the places where Jesus says that very few souls even in convents surrender completely to His love and trust in Him. He says the infidelity of a chosen soul wounds His Heart most painfully (367).
Well, of course, I was dismayed upon reading this because I thought how my own faults and sins must wound Jesus’ Heart painfully (because who of us is truly faithful in all things?), and to make things worse, I felt badly that this thought did not even move my heart to deeper repentance. (Enemy: Do you see that? What kind of a religious do you think you are anyway?)
But then I prayed, “Help me understand this, Jesus, because You always seem to be trying to teach me that my weakness and misery and sin is not a problem for You if I turn to You for mercy.” How is it that my faults and sins can at the same time pierce Your Heart and yet be no obstacle but rather a vehicle of Your mercy?
“A humble, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn” (Ps 51:17). This scripture just popped into my head, seemingly out of nowhere. The word of God can be a light in the darkness.
I realized that if I constantly humble myself before Him, whether it is my sin that causes me to be aware of my need for Him or just the recognition of my littleness and weakness as a blind, human creature, humility and trust draw His mercy to me, and then my little (or big) infidelities will cease to pierce His Heart. If I can always receive His mercy, I will console His Heart rather than grieve His Heart.
The enemy does not want us to get Divine Mercy right. If we do, he loses power over us, so he is always trying to lie to us about this or at least twist the truth so that he can keep us separated from Divine Mercy. But he can’t stand humility, so if we humbly receive the mercy we need anyway, the enemy will run away from us, and Jesus will restore peace to our souls.
- Sr. Mary Catherine Kasuboski, T.O.R.
