From the Desk of Father Romeo Velos – DIVINE MERCY

Sister Faustina (1905-1938) was a young, uneducated nun in a convent of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland during the 1930s. She came from a poor family that struggled during the years of World War I. She had only three years of simple education, so hers were the humblest tasks in the convent, usually in the kitchen or garden. However, she received extraordinary revelations — or messages — from our Lord Jesus. The Lord asked Sr. Faustina to record these experiences, which she compiled into notebooks. These notebooks are known today as the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, and the words contained within are God’s loving message of Divine Mercy. Mercy is hesed in Hebrew and misericordia in Latin which points to God’s steadfast, excessive, extravagant, tremendous, enormous love for us. He chooses to be one of us, stands with us sinners and is like us in all things except sin. His love is stronger than death and greater than our infidelities, betrayals, failings and guilt. He gave all and loved to the end. The Cross is God’s ultimate bending down on us, His total solidarity with us because Jesus on the Cross took on Himself all the ugliness and isolation of sin in order to make manifest what sin really looks like and to wipe our sin away in His precious blood. The glorified body of the Risen Lord is not photo shop perfect but marked by the wounds of His passion. The Latin word, vulnera means wounds. Vulnerability is the ability to be wounded. Bodies that are only fantasies cannot be wounded, touched and are not susceptible to suffering. We can exploit, abuse others taking advantage of their vulnerability. But it is in wounds, weakness, imperfection, limitation that the work of grace is seen most clearly. St. Paul said that it is in our weakness that we are strong for God’s grace is sufficient for our weakness. God’s weakness is more powerful than human strength. His foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. We are therefore to look to the wounds of the Risen Lord and to our own wounds because these are places of suffering, places that solicit love for to love is to be vulnerable, touchable and open to sufferings of others. The body of the Risen Lord is the most beautiful, compelling, glorious and seductive body in creation capable of breathing and living, capable of touching and loving. We are called to be witnesses of the miracle of Easter. That is, to witness that God’s love and mercy never end and die.