Breaking into holidays to reflect on the holy days marking the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was recharging to both body and spirit. The holy days are set aside from the rest of the year to afford mankind enough time to retreat and reflect the supreme sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for the salvation of all. The days are determined by the Catholic Church based on its liturgical calendar that other religious sects do not have. Government declares such days as identified by the Catholic Church as non-working holidays to allow workers from both public and private sectors to join in the commemoration. Business establishments also follow the days set for the observance of the holy days. There is therefore commonality among all sectors that the holidays are holidays that carries spiritual and religious significance more than anything thing else.
It runs a muck on the senses for people to abuse and misuse the holidays for unholy activities that mocks the spirituality of the holy days. Drastic changes attending the commemoration of the holy week are very much conspicuous these days. In recent years, people would be busy preparing for religious activities set for the week by the Catholic Church. The commemoration is full of holy activities that are all focused on the saga of man’s salvation. Broadcast media plays a vital role in bringing to the people radio and television programs depicting the way that Jesus Christ obediently took in fulfillment of the will of the Father for the salvation of mankind.
People would truly take a break from usual activities and be glued to homes listening to drama presentations over the radio and movies on television, all about the passion of Jesus Christ. Those who live in the rural areas and hinterlands where mass broadcast media are not available for lack of electric power and electronic gadgets of information would spend the holy days reading and singing the passion of Jesus Christ from the holy bible as well as religious pamphlets on the passion. Contemplating on the sorrowful mysteries is the center of the observance and nothing of the joyful kind is done for the duration. The faithful would troop in pilgrim fashion to churches and other religious sites that are apt for a good retreat and reflection.
Disheartening indeed and embarrassing as well that people who proudly claim to be Christians are now getting diverted from the Jesus Christ who suffered for their sins and their salvation. We all have been shown the way but we tend to follow our own way that is apart from the one Jesus Christ gave us. We take a joy ride on the holidays that were basically declared in observance of the Catholic Church’s sacred tradition by setting on a journey where there is joy and self-satisfaction even if without Jesus Christ. We lurk in happiness of the flesh and find contentment in material possessions even to the extent of despising the will of our Father in heaven. We break our condition in prayer to follow the will of the Father as we always opt to follow our own in any given opportunity.
We ought it to be true witnesses to our faith by refraining and altogether rejecting anything that diverts us from the real significance of the holy days. Using the holidays to party and picnic outings that despise the true intention of the break which is for holy and spiritual journeys of the soul desecrates the supreme sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross. We need to reorient our practices not purely out of tradition but of our free will to be true to our prayer to follow the will of our Father in heaven. There is always an Easter Sunday when we can all claim to be triumphant in going festive, joyous and happy but such must not be held ahead during the passion and death of Jesus Christ where all are expected to be pensive and never caught in worldly adventures of the flesh.
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Mercy, God’s ultimate love for us
CHRIST was not contented only with offering forgiveness to those who crucified him while still hanging on the cross and just moments before his death. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do,” he said. (Lk 23,34) He wanted that mercy to offered all throughout time by giving his apostles the power to forgive.
“Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” (Jn 20,22-23) This is how great God’s love is for us. Let’s hope that we too can channel that same love, at least to some degree, among ourselves.
We need to know what is involved in imparting this divine mercy. Yes, for this purpose we have to study well the doctrine of our faith and morals, now authoritatively taught by the Church magisterium. We need to be generous with our time and effort so that that divine mercy can be readily given to everyone.
This way we can hope to be father, a friend, a judge and a doctor to the others insofar as their spiritual and moral lives are concerned.
More than that, we really should pray so that we can see more directly and reflect in our attitudes, our thoughts, words and deeds the very passion, death and resurrection of Christ which in the end is the very substance of divine mercy.
The ideal situation is that we be filled with holy desires to ask for forgiveness, to atone and make reparation for our sins and the sins of others. It’s a mindset that we have to deliberately cultivate, always getting inspiration from the example of Christ himself.
I wonder if our idea of what Christian life ought to be includes this very important factor. Until we have these desires to dispense divine mercy to others can we sincerely say that we are truly Christian, another Christ if not Christ himself, as we ought to be.
In our daily examination of conscience, let us try to see if we have been doing something concrete in this regard. Are we willing to bear the sins of others, in an effort to reflect Christ’s attitude toward all of us who are all sinners?
It is indeed a tall order to be able to disburse this divine mercy to everyone. Even more, it is an impossible task, for how can a human instrument, no matter how gifted he is intellectually, morally and spiritually, ever think that he can give God’s mercy, so full of mysteries that simply go beyond even the most brilliant and smart methods we can ever develop?
I shudder at the thought that a human instrument has been given the responsibility to dispense the very mercy of God to penitent sinners. Thus, prayers have been formulated to calm down the apprehensions of priests before hearing confessions, and to make them aware of what they need to be, to have, and to do.
To dispense mercy is simply to distribute it from a sure source that can never be depleted, since God is rich in mercy. He is never sparing in giving it. In fact, this divine mercy is given to us in abundance.
And as long as the human instruments and those who would like to avail of it have at least the minimum proper intentions and dispositions, and the constitutive acts of the sacrament of divine mercy are done, that is, there is contrition, confession and penance, then that divine mercy is disbursed.
The effectiveness of the sacrament of divine mercy depends more on the will and power of God as carried out by Christ than on the qualities of the ministers and the penitents.