Monday 14 March 2016
This Lent I have grown in an appreciation of the God whose name is MERCY. This has been a particular grace of this Jubilee Year of Mercy. The scripture readings read year after year in this time of grace have spoken to me in a new way of the God of Mercy.
Today’s gospel presents Jesus, the Face of the Merciful Father. Even the men of the gospel story could not refute or deny the message: they chose to walk away one by one, beginning with the eldest among them.
The first reading also presents the image of Jesus, the face of the Father of Mercy, portrayed in a pre-eminent way in the young man who had wisdom enough to discern that Susanna was innocent.
“The Lord heard her cry … and aroused the holy spirit of a young lad named Daniel …”
The Holy Spirit arouses in us that most humanising of virtues which makes us like God: Mercy.
It is my prayer that on this Monday the Lord give us through his Holy Spirit the wisdom to discern what is for God’s glory, even for his greater glory, to practise mercy; to be more like our heavenly Master, Jesus, the incarnate face of the Merciful God.
“You are the visible face of the invisible Father, of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy: let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified.” (Prayer of Pope Francis.)
+Bishop Edward Risi OMI
Diocese of Keimoes-Upington