The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
“He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.”
When I think about my own spiritual journey and the big moments where God has done something beautiful, they are almost always tied to a not so great time in my life — a time where God the Father was “moved to compassion” and "had pity" on me. In those moments, he transformed my heart and made me new again.
Through his own little acts of kindness and compassion, and most importantly, forgiveness of our sins, God transforms each of us and crowns us. He elevates our dignity to who we are — his beloved sons and daughters. And then? He calls us forth to transform others in the same way, through kindness, compassion, and mercy.
As we heard in today’s Gospel, God’s mercy is infinite and it knows no bounds. This is the same mercy we are called to pass on to those around us. Now, if you’re like me and your immediate thought is, “Um, how am I supposed to be kind and compassionate to everyone right now, God?” Don’t worry — he isn’t asking us to do this alone. The Lord knows that this calling is hard, that it’s going to be messy, and that it’s going to take time. He asks us trust him and to lean into him, so he can transform our hearts to be more like his, to be truly “moved to compassion” for our brothers and sisters — our roommates, co-workers, spouses, and anyone else who has wronged us (or caught us on a “bad day”).
This week, I want to encourage you to ask God to help you on this journey of transformation. Ask him for the “kindness and compassion.” Ask him for the strength to forgive — or at least, to begin the journey. A really powerful prayer for me when I’m struggling is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. If you’ve never prayed it (or maybe it’s been awhile), try it out, and I’d encourage you to offer it for the person who you might be struggling to see as a beloved son or daughter of Christ.
And on those days when you feel like it’s really hard and you just “can’t,” think back to the infinite mercy of the Father and simply say, “Jesus, I trust in you.” He will take care of the rest.
Susie Lopez is a lifelong Texan who enjoys long runs, baseball games, bacon, and jamming to 80’s songs in H-E-B. She works for a Catholic apostolate, the St. John Paul II Foundation, where she gets to serve the Church with her “Martha-like” gifts and talents, while learning how to become more like “Mary.” Come say hello on Instagram!