2nd Sunday of Easter / Divine Mercy Sunday
Title: Mercy not sacrifice.
[__01__] Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. October 2,
2006.
On this date -
October 2006 - a man with firearms and
weapons entered a one-room schoolhouse in the Lancaster county countryside, a
one-room schoolhouse where school was in session.
You know,
Lancaster is home to many Amish people who live remarkably simple and austere
lives – on farms / agriculture - of simplicity, spurning many modern
conveniences, and among the most traditional – not having television in their
home.
The Amish
are known to be a bit reserved – even aloof but the Amish are also known to be
very peace loving, peaceful and nonviolent.
[__02__] The man with the firearms was Charlie Roberts.
He took the lives of 5 schoolchildren and injured 5 others. He also took his
own life. Charlie Roberts died that day. It was not the first time there was
ever a school shooting. It was not the last.
But, amid
the trouble and tragedy, there was an outpouring of mercy.
[__03__] Just a few hours later, the same day – one
Amish man held Mr. Roberts' – the father of Charlie - sobbing father in his
arms, reportedly for as long as an hour, to comfort him. The Amish have also
set up a charitable fund for the family of Charlie Roberts.
That same
week, the Roberts family held a funeral for Charlie.
As the
family went to the burial set, more than 30 Amish people came out from the
other side of the graveyard to pay their respects, to show their forgiveness,
their love.
The
Roberts family who themselves are not Amish …they live lives in our regular
“fully industrialized civilized” or “uncivilized world”!
To this
day, the Roberts family has a strong and loving bond with the Amish community
[__04__] There is both “death” and “life” involved in
forgiveness.
The Good
News of the Gospel is that Jesus died to give us new life in God’s mercy.
Forgivevness
is about living, but it is also about dying. Consider a time when you were
challenged – and I can think of times when I was challenged – to “let go” and
“let God” take over by releasing my
anger, resentment, bitterness.
Sometimes,
that anger, bitterness, resentment is an energizing force, there is an
electricity to it… it’s so logical and easy to stay angry.
And, to
give it up is an act of humility and an act of dying to oneself, dying to one’s
sins.
[__05__] Forgiveness also involves dying to our
pre-defined notion of success or worthiness.
This was
the message of our Savior, Jesus Christ, to the Phariseess who were so
scandalized by Jesus hanging out with public sinners such as tax collectors and
prostitutes
And, when
Jesus heard their reproach – their discontent for those they deemed so
unworthy, those who are “dragging us down”…Jesus spoke this famous verse to
them, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice
(I-D-M-N-S) For I came not to call the
righteous but sinners.’” (Matthew 9:13)
[__06__] This
Sunday is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday, a reminder that we are all called
to evaluate how we apply both MERCY and SACRIFICE in our lives.
Franciscan
Father Raneiro Cantalamessa, a spiritual guide to both JP2 and B16 (popes)
wrote that “mercy” and “sacrifice” are both good things – especially when
choose “sacrifice” for ourselves and “mercy” for others.
The
Pharisees had it mixed up – they were quick to excuse their own behaviors and
attitudes and to assume mercy was theirs by right… as though they had purchased
personal seat licenses in the luxury box of heaven… and they put sacrifice on
everyone else.
[__07__] Divine Mercy Sunday also reminds us that
Jesus died primarily to give us his mercy. He is our atoning sacrifice. He died
for our sins. Forgiveness involves a death.
And, this
is not simply true on one Sunday of the year but every day and every Sunday.
Divine
Mercy Sunday exists to remind us why Jesus died and why he is so interested in
visiting us and visiting with all us – behind our own locked doors or locked
hearts or locked rooms.
And, Jesus also shows up exactly when we
feel defeated, even dead in our sins.
In the 1st
letter to the Corinthians, we read this about God’s mercy as being especially
intended and selected for those who are – or who feel -humiliated or broken.
That’s you. That’s me:
“God chose
the foolish of the world to shame the wise and God chose the weak of the world
to shame the strong and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those
who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no
human being may boast before God … whoever boasts, should boast in the
Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29, 31)
[__08__] And, I invite you to consider your own life
as I also must consider my own.
This is a
wonderful time of year to go to confession and I’ve put some copies of an
Examination of Conscience around the church along with a guide for the
sacrament. I assure you that I – or any priest – would help you if the ritual
is unfamiliar.
Confessions
will be heard after all the Masses this is weekend and also from 12:45 pm – 2
pm on Sunday. If none of these times works for you, I also gladly meet with
people at appointed times that you can arrange with me.
[__09__] One thing we can all struggle with is to
accept forgiveness after it is offered. We may think we do not deserve to be
forgiven.
But,
that’s what makes it a gift – we don’t “EARN” gifts … we receive them and try
to make them part of us.
This was
true also for the family of Charlie Roberts, including his mother, Mrs. Terri
Roberts of Lancaster County.
After the
tragic events, Terri met and came to know one very severely injured girl, a
girl named Rosanna who required much care at home.
Mrs. Terri
Roberts asked Rosanna’s family if she could help them. At the time, Terri Roberts herself was
fighting cancer.
But, there
she was once a week. Terri visited this young girl, read to her, bathed her,
dried her hair.
Terri does
not know with absolutely certainty that Rosanna knows who she is, but Terri
believes Rosanna does know.
In any
case, they both know who Jesus is. Jesus who said, “I desire mercy not
sacrifice.” (Matthew 9:13)
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