For those of us who love and are devoted to the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we are familiar with the ending prayer; “Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless, and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us, and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments, we might not despair, nor become despondent, but with great confidence, submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy Itself.” Many have read her Diary, “Divine Mercy in My Soul” which has profoundly affected their lives. Are you aware that the beautiful adoration chapel we have available to us 24/7 is graced with a powerful painting of the Divine Mercy? It’s truly remarkable. Some say it is so captivating that their eyes are constantly drawn towards it, so much so that it can even be a distraction to their time of prayer in the chapel.

Allow me to comment on one aspect of this painting. There is a figure in it that hauntingly draws my attention. I say, hauntingly because I don’t like to look at it. It is the priest who has his back to Jesus. He has a kind of smug look on his face as if to say, “I don’t believe in this”. It reminds me to say a prayer that I may never give up on God’s mercy. But there’s more. If I am to be a disciple of Divine Mercy, then I need to look mercifully at that priest with the smug face. I need to try to understand him, and anyone he represents. I think I do understand a bit. If you read the history of Sister Faustina, you see that there was indeed opposition to her story and her messages. Of course, some of the opposition was rooted in skepticism about supernatural visions. But others were skeptical about preaching mercy, mercy, mercy without mercy’s counterpart, justice. Remember, Sister Faustina lived in Poland during those terrible years of war. She died in 1938 as WWII was getting underway with still fresh memories of WWI. Perhaps that smug priest felt that a devotion to Mercy without a devotion to Justice wasn’t so great. That I can understand. Most of us demand justice when it comes to injustices against us. But still God’s grace shines through His mercy. In fact, it is illogical to believe in mercy, or to define what mercy is without equal attention to justice. Why is that? Mercy means nothing without justice. That is, we can only show mercy when we know that some form of injustice has taken place. I can only forgive you if I realize you did something wrong against me. A smug reaction to Sister Faustina would be in order if mercy is reduced to mere “tolerance”. This is one of today’s great heresies. 

Today, society praises tolerance all the while destroying the true idea of mercy. Today, we are asked to tolerate all kinds of sin, all the while declaring that there is no such thing as sin. A healthy understanding of sin is necessary to practice the divine virtue of mercy. In conclusion, I am wondering, what percentage of people who call SSCM or St James home have never visited our beautiful adoration chapel. Are you one?