Jesus, you call us to your infinite mercy. St. Thomas Aquinas says that your mercy is your greatest attribute, for it manifests your infinite perfection, and your infinite abundance and generosity. You have no need to love us, nor give to us any good thing; for, we are deserving only of the justice due our sins. But the Father, through you, had deigned to forgive us our faults, and still lavish upon us more gifts. Therein lies your mercy -- in you, your Person, Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God.
May we come to trust in your mercy as little children, not without fault, but knowing full-well our absolute need of you. For it is in your Person that we have become sharers in the divine nature, sharers in eternal life, sharers in your sacrificial life for our salvation and of the whole world. In you, we have been gifted grace upon grace, as St. John wrote in his Gospel. In you, we have received redemption from the realm of slavery to the realm of justice and freedom, of friendship with God our Creator. In you, we have received the hope of perfection; by your wounds we are healed. All of your works are done in mercy.
Do not, O Lord, let us forget that your mercy is not merely a forgetfulness of our sin, but an abundance given of what we do not deserve, in order to restore us to justice. You would not have it simply that our sins be forgiven and our wretchedness remain, but you have created us as new creations. In your mercy, we are made true and good. We, by your grace through your Cross and Resurrection, have been redeemed and been given light; we, therefore must be children of mercy, spreading your abundance and good-will to all. For if we do not forgive our debtors, we cannot be forgiven. If we do not show mercy, no mercy can be shown to us, since we would not allow the gift of God to live in us and through us, since we would dare to refuse the gift of justice to another.
When we had separated ourselves from you, and remained incapable of returning, you stretched out your arms in compassion to draw us back to yourself. When we were dark and void, you breathed in us new life and order. "Let there be light." It is no longer we who live, but you who live in us. There is no depth to which your mercy cannot reach. "Seek my face," you say, O Lord. Your face Lord I will seek. Can we seek any other, when in all else there is no rest nor peace? May we constantly turn to your infinite mercy. Jesus, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, I trust in you. +
