The Flame of Divine Mercy
In today’s
Gospel, Jesus expresses His burning desire to accomplish His great mission,
saying, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already
blazing!” His passion, death, and resurrection will spark the purifying flame
of divine mercy, opening heaven to all believers by the forgiveness of sin.
Yet Jesus also
predicts the division and opposition that will arise even among families, as
one chooses to follow Him and another rejects His message. As in ancient times,
when the prophet Jeremiah was threatened with death for speaking God’s often
unpopular word, many Christians today face opposition within their own families
and communities, while the violent persecution of Christians increases
worldwide.
In his prayer entrusting
the world to Divine Mercy, St. John Paul II takes up the theme of fire,
speaking of his own “burning desire that the message of God's merciful love may
be made known to all the peoples of the earth” and referring to the Divine
Mercy messages as "the spark which will prepare the world for [Jesus’s]
final coming" (Diary, 1732). He added, “This spark needs to be lighted by
the grace of God. This fire of mercy needs to be passed on to the world. In the
mercy of God the world will find peace and mankind will find happiness! I
entrust this task to you... May you be witnesses to mercy!”
Are we willing
to witness to God’s merciful love despite the opposition we may face in our own
families and from the world? Are we ready, as St. Paul says, to resist sin even
to the point of shedding blood? By keeping the flame of God’s merciful love
burning even amid storms of opposition, we will enter into the eternal peace
won for us by Jesus Christ.
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