The Marvel of God’s Life within us

                    The greatest gift of God’s Mercy

                                            June 2016                  

You must know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within – the Spirit you have received from God.  You are not your own.  You have been purchased, and at a price.  So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

     The above short quote from St. Paul says it all.  Yet it is but a summary of the greatest gift that God could possibly give to us human beings and that is the gift of himself.  If only we understood this better, especially the consequences of having his presence verses not having it, our lives would be changed forever.  For we would never want to do anything which would bring about the loss of this most marvelous gift.  We would never want to intentionally commit another sin in our whole lives.

        In the quote above, St. Paul says that we have been bought at a price.  What he is referring to, of course, is the passion and death of Jesus Christ.  Jesus had to undergo this before our sins could be forgiven and we would then be enabled to receive a share in God’s live, the Holy Spirit.

    Thus, I would like to begin with the words of Jesus, the Son of God who clearly spells out the desire of his heavenly Father and himself regarding this gift. Chapter 14 of St. John’s gospel is my favorite chapter in the bible.  That God’s wishes to live within us is not something the Apostles or the Church has made up.  It is the truth coming from Jesus and there is nothing in life that has a greater value for now or in the future. The following is, I think,  the most important passage in the bible.

John 14:15-21

     “If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it.  But you know it, because it remains with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me because I live and you will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in the Father and you are in me and I in you.  Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.  And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

     After Jesus had died on the cross redeeming us from our sins, and risen from the dead, he wanted as many people as possible to receive the benefits of his loving sacrifice.  In Luke 24:47, Jesus tells his apostles to go out into the whole world and preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all nations.   The Apostles had received the power to forgive sins on the evening of day one of the resurrection (John 20:19).   To receive the forgiveness of sins opens the door to all other gifts that God wants to give to us – reconciliation, a share in God’s life (sanctifying grace), being made an adopted son or daughter of God through Jesus, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and an heir to the kingdom of God after death.  Thus we should not look upon the sacrament of confession as something burdensome, but as an opportunity to grow in the love and life of God.  We are not all great sinners, true, but we are all sinners in constant need of God’s help.  The Holy Spirit is there wanting to help us, if only we take advantage of what is available to us.  Remember the words of Jesus in Luke 15, “There is more joy in heaven over the repentance of one person than 99 who do not need repentance.”

    I would like to close this short essay with the words of Jesus to Sr. Saint Faustina as she wrote in her diary about a year before she died in 1938.

      Jesus spoke to Sr. Faustina:  Write, speak of my mercy.  Tell souls where they are to look for solace, that it is in the Tribunal of Mercy, the sacrament of reconciliation.  There the greatest miracles take place and are incessantly repeated.  To avail oneself, it is not necessary to go on a great pilgrimage or to carry out some extraordinary ceremony; it suffices to come with faith to the feet of my representative and reveal to him one’s misery, and the miracle of Divine Mercy will be fully demonstrated.  Were souls like a decaying corpse there would be no hope of restoration and everything would already be lost; it is not so with God.  The miracle of Divine Mercy restores that soul in full.  Oh how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy.  You will call out in vain but it will be too late.  (notebook 5, 1937, number 1448)

     It is apparent from this message from Jesus, that he knew the sacrament of reconciliation would be severely neglected after Vatican II and in our times it would need rehabilitation.  For such is the mercy of God for the salvation of souls. 

                                                                                            Fr. Marvin Deutsch, M.M.