Thy Mercy

It seems that for many Christians we have an understanding that heaven is only for the sinless and holy people. If that is the case, then only few or no one would be able to go to heaven and be with God for eternity.

I remember having a likely intellectual discussion with my friend about God and salvation. I have quantified the basis of God’s discernment for choosing someone to be with Him in heaven. However, my friend said that it is in God’s mercy that we can have eternal life. I was quite upset to hear it because it appears to be unfair for someone who is trying his best to be a good person by avoiding sins and temptations and yet it is possible for a sinful person to be in heaven because of God’s mercy and compassion.

Mercy is defined as love toward those that are miserable, those that are wretched, and those that need some type of help or assistance. Having compassion on those that are in any way hurting is only the first part of having mercy. Doing something about it, is the all important second part.

The Corporal Works of Mercy such as feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, comfort the imprisoned, visit the sick, and bury the dead while the Spiritual Works of Mercy like admonish sinners, instruct the uninformed, counsel the doubtful, comfort the sorrowful, be patient with those in error, forgive offenses, and pray for the living and the dead are the ways by which God wanted us to show and share His mercy to our fellowmen.

The story of the two thieves crucified on the cross together with Jesus Christ is a perfect example of God’s mercy and compassion. When God said to Dimas, “Today you shall be with me in paradise,” is apparently a genuine manifestation of God’s great love and mercy to a sinner who at the very moment was blessed by God to be with Him in heaven. Also, when the blessed Pope John Paul II was attempted to be assassinated, he visited the person in the prison cell who tried to kill him and lovingly and mercifully hugged him and forgave him from what he did. It was truly a beautiful expression of God’s loving mercy.

Looking back at the sharing I had with my friend, I realized that God’s love and mercy is infinite and cannot be measured nor be quantified by space and time.  It is endless and unfathomable that not even the greatest theologian in the world can ever comprehend.

It is my ardent hope and prayer that as children of God we can continuously live a life full of mercy and compassion especially to those who need most of it.

The 5^th Beautitude, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

P.S. I Love You

Prayer as simply defined by Fr. Thomas Green, SJ in his book Opening to God, is “The opening of our minds to God.” If I may add, prayer is not only opening of our minds to God but at the same time lifting our hearts to Him as well. It is in prayer that we are able to communicate and express our deepest thoughts and feelings to God. It is where we empty both our minds and hearts so that the spirit and love of God may dwell in us. Prayer in its highest form is our way of communing to God for us to think, see, feel and realize what God wanted us to do in our lives. 

Scriptures is one of the several names denoting the inspired writings which make up the Old and New Testament. The bible is a holy book where we can find all the stories about God from His commandments, teachings, miracles, sufferings, persecution and also stories of ordinary people just like us who have witnessed, followed and lived a life according to God’s perfect example.

It is through prayer that we offer and surrender everything to God and it is by reading the scriptures that we are able to get to know and discover our true God. Thus, we can say that prayers and scriptures are ways and means by which we can wholeheartedly fulfill our being of existence. We cannot just pray alone without getting to know who are we really praying for and we cannot just read the scriptures without emulating the life of God by living His holy teachings.

Every time I go to church on a Sunday, I consider it a blessed opportunity to be a part of a community of people that prays to God. As I pray with them, I can feel that there is great joy and love that overflows from each individual which I am very sure God feels very good about.

I remember in one of the books I have read entitled “Embraced by the Light” by Betty J. Eadie, she narrated how she witnessed people pray whereby she described it like a shooting star that goes up to heaven very fast in multitude because of millions of people pray. She said that our prayer can be immediately granted by God because He is bombarded with a lot of prayers. It will surely be an awe inspiring experience to witness how all our prayers go up to heaven being received by God.

On the other hand, one sad reality for many Catholics is that we rarely read the bible or perhaps we don’t read it at all. Maybe this is a reason why many of our fellow Catholics were converted to other faiths because of the lack of knowledge of who God really is in the context of our Catholic faith.  Again, we cannot just pray without reading the Scriptures and we cannot just read the Scriptures without praying at all.

Time and again, we are all invited to get to know God deeply by reading and studying the Holy Scriptures coupled it with our sincere and utmost prayer to God that we may reveal through our words and actions that we really and truly love God above all everything.

P.S. I love you just like in a love letter will be our last but the sweetest words we will utter to God because we truly believe that He is alive as it is the ultimate desire of our heart and soul to be with Him one day in His beautiful place called heaven.

P.S. I LOVE YOU LORD!