Friday

Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Exodus 6:1-13
Acts 7:35-42
39-41"They craved the old Egyptian ways, whining to Aaron, 'Make us gods we can see and follow. This Moses who got us out here miles from nowhere—who knows what's happened to him!' That was the time when they made a calf-idol, brought sacrifices to it, and congratulated each other on the wonderful religious program they had put together.” (Acts 7:39-41)

Jesus the Christ, is God’s answer to the age long desire for a “God we can see and follow” Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Theologians have sometimes called this “the scandal of the incarnation.” Think about it… The Master of the Universe, the Divine Artist and Creator of all that is, entered His creation in the womb of Mary. God moved into the neighborhood and set aside His glory to save us from ourselves. The God who was far away becomes one of us so that we might behold the Father.

In a world of bloody animal and human sacrifices, Jesus came to end them all, to do what they could not, by giving his own life in the sacrifice of the cross. God entered God’s creation and humanity killed Him. Sin, that part of us that hurts ourselves and others in ten million cruel and wicked ways from common deceit to mass destruction was what nailed the Divine to wood and crowned the King of Creation with twisted thorns.

Love is always sacrificial. For he who loves desires to give himself. In that unfathomable death and by His sorrowful passion, Christ, the Mercy of God poured out His life on the cross, that cross which speaks and never ceases to speak of God the Father, who is absolutely faithful to His eternal love for man, since He "so loved the world" — therefore man in the world-that "he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Mercy is an indispensable dimension of love... believing in this love means believing in mercy.

Believing in the crucified Son means "seeing the Father," means believing that love is present in the world and that this love is more powerful than any kind of evil in which individuals, humanity, or the world are involved.

The cross is the most profound condescension of God to man and to what man — especially in difficult and painful moments — looks on as his unhappy destiny. The cross is like a touch of eternal love upon the most painful wounds of man's earthly existence.

Prayer: You expired, O Jesus, but the source of life poured forth for souls and an ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us. O Blood and Water, which poured forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You. Amen