Memorial of Sts. John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs

Today's Mass Readings

Mercy is the medicine of the spiritual life. Here we have it calling out again from the sacred scriptures. Mercy is something that comes down from Heaven and gives proper merit, granting reprieve to the one who gives it and the one who receives, to quote the Merchant of Venice. The long and short of it is that we are afraid to ask for God’s mercy. St. Paul knew mercy well. He could write well that all had sinned and were deprived of God’s mercy. It is by God’s grace that mercy is given and no one has any room to boast. St. Paul openly admitted in another letter, Galatians, that he had persecuted the true Church of Christ. He found himself “mercifully treated.” Divine Mercy is the only thing that really separated Paul and other Apostles from Judas who betrayed the Lord.

Jesus challenges the hard-heartedness of the Pharisees and Scribes of the Law. They were closed to God’s mercy. They had closed off the key to knowledge and the way to holiness. He pointed out how they had shed the blood of the prophets and holy ones from “Abel to Zechariah.” This rebuke is harsh because it falls on us similarly. We have turned away God’s prophets so many times. Let us not forget our own share in both iniquity and in mercy.

Lesson: St. Catherine of Siena said so beautifully that sin disrupts God’s image of us like a stone tossed into water. When we repent of sin the water is calmed and we see our reflection again. We see ourselves as God intended us to be. I encourage you to take the time to reflect on how God’s mercy operates in your life. Look for the ways you have been shown mercy. Ask for mercy for those things you still grapple with. Remember to show mercy to yourself to, which then makes you more merciful with others and more open to God’s mercy. Amen.

Reflection by Br. Matthew Marie, OSB