Low Sunday (Mercy builds on Justice) Thomas answered and said to Him: My Lord and my God. 1. There are many reasons for His Majesty s Resurrection, reasons why He rose from the dead among them are God s Justice and His Mercy. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the Resurrection is for the commendation of Divine Justice, to which it belongs to exalt them who humble themselves for God s sake. Justice, therefore, is a reason for the Resurrection where justice is giving to another what they deserve what is rightfully theirs what has been earned in some way. Our Lord humbled Himself even unto death death on the Cross and so He justly deserved to be raised up again. And since His humiliation was unto the depths His Resurrection unto the heights of the Heaven of heavens. 2. Mercy is connected to Justice since Mercy goes beyond justice by giving MORE than what is rightfully due to another. Thus St. Thomas explains that mercy presupposes justice or builds upon justice, to become, as it were, the superabundant fulfillment of justice. Mercy is going the extra mile. 3. Recall how Abraham was commanded by God, the Creator and sustainer of all life, to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham fulfilled Justice by fearing God and obeying His command to sacrifice Isaac, his only son by Sarah. Yet, having fulfilled justice, God granted Abraham mercy. Not only was he given his son Isaac back (as a type and prophecy of the future Resurrection), but also he was granted a vision of the Christ on Calvary with the replacement sacrifice, the ram caught in the tree. His Majesty indicated this to the Jews of His time: Abraham rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad. Abraham was granted many other blessings and mercies because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for My sake: I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore; thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. Consequently, Abraham is our father in faith and we still invoke his name to this day. Thus, the Scriptures say of God, His Mercies endure forever. The Council of Trent says: if we, contrite and penitent, with sincere heart and upright faith, with fear and reverence
[i.e., we fulfill justice], draw nigh to God, we obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid (Session XXII, ch. II). 4. This is very a important point of God s divine Plan because it shows that He grants His Mercy in abundance to those who seek to fulfill His Justice. We all want His Mercy but how can we obtain it if we forget His Justice? 5. The Scriptures state over and over again that God grants Mercy on those who fear Him (i.e., those willing to fulfill justice toward Him). Some examples: King David says in a number of ways in the Psalms: But the mercy of the Lord is from eternity and unto eternity upon them that fear Him (Ps. 102:17). Our Lady said in her Magnificat: His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him (Luke 1:50). Again, those who fear God seek to fulfill all justice! As His Majesty said so plainly in His Sermon on the Mount: Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things [i.e., mercies] shall be added unto you (6:33). 6. This brings us to another aspect of God s Mercy. As we heard a moment ago, mercy is going the extra mile, giving more than is deserved, but Divine Mercy also removes obstacles it relieves misery by removing defects and evils. That is why we poor humans want it so badly it removes evils that we cannot overcome (disease, terrible temptations, death). Even though all that God does in our world has Mercy as its foundation (since God owes us nothing whatsoever by Justice), once we are in the world once we are in God s Plan, we must begin by seeking to give to God and to others what is their due and then God assists with His Mercy. Once again, as St. Thomas explains, mercy presupposes justice or builds upon justice. 7. We fulfill justice by obeying His commands, by being baptized confessing our sins, learning our faith, and then God is merciful beyond measure by removing guilt, lessening debt of punishment, even removing faults in due time, and giving us Himself in Holy Communion, and His Holy and Blessed Mother as our intercessor. 8. We know that floodgates of this Divine Mercy (to remove evils) opened up upon the world after the Passion, Death and Resurrection of His Majesty. Man is a sinner and has an debt that he cannot pay. He is the man in the
Gospel with the debt of the 10,000 talents (an un-payable debt). The God-Man comes and takes the guilt and debt upon Himself so that Justice can be fulfilled and then mercy bestowed on those who submit themselves to Him through baptism and enter into His Mystical Body the Church. 9. Given this is the way of things in God s Plan, notice that the more His Majesty humbled Himself, the more Mercy God the Father granted Him to give back to us fallen men. His Majesty humbled Himself in everyway and God granted Him Mercy to help us in everyway. Thus, we see how Divine Mercy works. Good Friday is for atonement, just satisfaction, reparation, transference of debts and payment it was total selfabasement. It was for the removal of blockages that could not overlooked by Justice. Whereas the Resurrection is for the granting of favors and mercies. Good Friday was for taking away of bad things Easter Sunday for the granting of good things. The two are connected they are inseparable. (N.B. Easter Sunday is the 1 st and most important of ALL SUNDAYS thus a concern for the Divine Mercy Novena is expressed here for the Novena passes right buy Easter Sunday and makes for Low Sunday as if that is the special day hmmm) 10. A story is told of a Judge forced to pass judgment upon his son who killed a man. The just sentence was death. The judge declared the sentence, but then throws off his robes and comes down (i.e., from heaven) and takes his convicted son s place, dying the death of a murderer. Justice preceded the act of mercy. This act takes care of our reconciliation with God. Vertical justice is satisfied with Christ s death. 11. But there is still the problem of how to fulfill justice between the dead man and the murderer horizontal justice needs to be satisfied to complete the sign of salvation, the Cross. Thus a Resurrection is needed. The murdered man must rise so that justice can be satisfied. This is yet another reason for Christ s Resurrection. He rises so that all can rise so that all can be reconciled even with each other on the Last Day. Nothing of justice will be left unanswered unfulfilled. Even if one or more of the parties are damned in hell, everyone will be called to rise and meet with Christ at the final judgment to resolve all injustices.
12. This brings us to the justice of an eternal hell. Hmmm. Is such a place and punishment just? Merciful? When someone is converting on their death bed, among other things they need to believe explicitly that God is One in three Persons, that His Divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that God rewards the good and punishes the bad. Hmmm. Punishes the bad. That the wicked will be punished after death is acknowledged by all who maintain the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. God is holy, and therefore hates sin; He is just, and therefore claims satisfaction for the offences committed against Him; He is wise, and therefore requires punishment as a means of restoring the moral order (He is merciful, as He does not punish as much as we deserve). Inasmuch as sin does not receive its due punishment in this world, it must do so in the other. Hence the tradition of all nations speak of some sort of hell. (Scheeban) Divine Revelation, Holy Church and the universal agreement of the Fathers and Doctors teach us that this hell is real; it is forever, everlasting, eternal; it is painful; and it is just punishment. Thus the infallible Anthanasian Creed (de fide) reads toward the end: it is necessary to eternal salvation that he also believe faithfully the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life eternal, and they who indeed have done evil into eternal fire. This is the Catholic faith, which except a man shall have believed faithfully and firmly he cannot be in a state of salvation. 13. St. Teresa of Jesus visited hell in a vision. She saw her place there prepared by the devils: I suddenly found that, without knowing how, I had seemingly been put in hell. I understood that the Lord wanted me to see the place the devils had prepared there for me and which I merited because of my sins. I well understood that it was a great favor and that the Lord desired me to see with my own eyes the place His mercy had freed me from She literally experienced many of the pains offered to the residents of hell pains of the body and pains of the soul such that she stated: being burned here on earth is very little when compared to being burned by the fire that is there (Life, 32.1,3). She counted this experience of hell among the greatest favors the Lord bestowed upon her.
14. Do we want God s mercies to avoid this eternal punishment? He grants His Mercy in abundance to those who FEAR HIM and seek to fulfill His Justice. Here is how we can seek to fulfill justice 15. First, we recognize that He is God This is His world. He is KING. This is why He gave us all the prophecies and types ahead of time to let us know He is in charge. This is His Plan. Thus, in justice, we give God what is His this world and all that is in it (Abraham gave up his son Isaac). Let us, therefore, stop clinging on to things as if they were our own rather than given to us to fulfill God s justice! 16. Second, we should live by God s laws the ten Commandments, six precepts, and all that they entail. Once again, He made us In justice, we live according to how He made us. This will bring God s mercy and many blessings! 17. Third, we can make sure that Christ s fulfilling of Divine Justice on Good Friday was not in vain by admitting that we are sinners and acknowledging our individual sins against His Commandments to a priest in confession regularly. By doing this we bring them to Christ, who takes them and fulfills justice on the Cross so that He can grant us abundant mercy. Meanwhile we strive to prevent repetition of these sins! 18. Finally, as we grow in following Christ more and more, we will want to do what He did We will not be satisfied with trying to fulfill justice anymore but seek to alleviate the sufferings of the Church and world by taking some suffering upon ourselves to remove the bad things the blockages so that God will grant us His mercy upon the world, to prevent souls from going to hell as Our Lady asked us to do at Fatima. They will seek transference (vicarious suffering) and to make reparation in a word, they will seek to die with Christ on the Cross (Isaac let himself be bound on the wood of the altar) so that they will rise with Him and then God will be forced by His own Self to grant them many blessings and favors. This is what the saints all did. So, as God fulfilled Justice in the Christ after His humble Passion, and does so with mercy in superabundance so also will He do for all the suffering and injustice we undergo for Him and with Him and in Him. 19. Let us do these things and God will grant us His mercy not only in abundance, but in superabundance at the proper time and what is more, He will grant us a glorious Resurrection with all His saints.