082 WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR? WE HAVE A MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS GOD... This is a familiar reading during the Season of Lent. It is encouraging and an inspiration to most, to REPENT and go back to the Lord who is merciful and good, gracious and benign... From the Book of Joel 2:12-13... ‘’Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping, and mourning; REND YOUR HEARTS NOT YOUR GARMENTS, and return to the LORD, your GOD; FOR GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL IS HE, SLOW TO ANGER, RICH IN KINDNESS, AND RELENTING IN PUNISHMENT.’’ The first part admonishes us to have a genuine repentance (‘’..return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning...REND YOUR HEARTS..’’) and not rue or lament our trespasses just for show (‘’..NOT YOUR GARMENTS..’’). Throughout man’s history, in all his dealings with the Almighty, we have never seen an unrelenting God, a hard, unforgiving, pitiless Father. Quite the opposite, we have seen Him to be benign, easily swayed into forgiveness, cajoled into patience and pity. In the Book of Genesis, (18:15-33; 19:24), God allowed Abraham to haggle for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, hoping to save the cities of the region on the basis of finding enough just men there. But none were found and the cities were rained with brimstone, sulphur and fire; but only after giving a chance for Abraham to speak in their defence. Again, in the book of Exodus, (32:1-29), after receiving the tablets of stone on which were inscribed the DECALOGUE ir the Ten Commandments, Moses came upon a faithless and disloyal Israelites who were worshipping a golden calf they have prepared for the purpose of a ritual of worship. Such disloyalty merited no less than a merciless anger, a wrath beyond anything else from the Almighty One. But no, Moses prayed to the Father, in a touching way, and the Father relented from destroying this obstinate and stubborn chosen ones. And now this. In one of her messages in the Blue Book (To The Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons, msg. 438) ‘’Open Your Hearts to Hope’’, the Blessed Mother of Jesus says this: ‘’I was chosen by the Most Holy Trinity, to become the Mother of the Second Advent, and thus my Motherly task is that of preparing the Church and all humanity to receive Jesus, who is returning to you in glory....’’ This is very much like the benign, graceful, merciful and good Father that our God is, sending out the Mother of Jesus to get some more people back into the sheepfold, for there must only be one sheepfold, with only one GOOD SHEPHERD... WHY DID GOD SEND A MOTHER TO HIS CHILDREN? ‘’Today, my place is here, near my Son who is suffering... dying... buried... risen... today my place is again here, near all my sons (and daughters)... I am with you during these moments of darkness and suffering, when you are being called to live out what Jesus endured during His redemptive passion... I am always near you to help you suffer, to die and to rise again until the plan of the Father...’’ The Blessed Mother never left the foot of the cross. So too, the Blessed Mother of Mankind will never leave us, suffering humanity, in our darkest hours, in our deepest snares, in our frequent falls to sin... she promised, she was sent to comfort and prepare humanity...all these from a benign God, a forgiving Father, a relenting Almighty One who knows what He could do to an obstinate and stubborn humanity. So, WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR? Like the Prodigal Son, let us manifest our desire to ask forgiveness, to repent for our wrongdoings, to have a contrite heart as we approach Him through the sacrament of penance... for such is our God, relenting to sinners, forgiving, slow to anger. ‘’...REND OUR HEARTS AND NOT OUR GARMENTS...’’ ‘’...WITH FASTING, WEEPING AND MOURNING...’’..mcnol.032514.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:59:28 +0000
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