I am sad about his mother. I am also sad that whatever chance we had to have him deliver a homily about Divine Mercy Sunday on April 19 is now history. We are getting a substitute priest for the next few weeks and considering the parish he is coming from I have little hope of hearing anything about the Divine Mercy.
I was thinking about this at the Vigil Mass. (I know - I should have been paying attention...) Then during the Consecration it hit me - the priest's life is the Way of the Cross. The priest gives his life for us in a million ways. And maybe Father won't be here in our parish for Divine Mercy Sunday but he will be living it as he watches his mother die.
A few weeks ago I gave Father an article written by Cardinal Arinze that appeared in Marian Helper magazine. Cardinal Arinze wrote this:
"Theologically, it is significant that this Sunday is the conclusion of the octave of Easter," Cardinal Arinze said. "Thus is shown the strict link between the paschal mystery of Redemption and the Feast of Divine Mercy. The novena in preparation for Mercy Sunday begins on Good Friday. This is eloquent. We are adoring the merciful God, who sent sent His Son to save us through the cross."
He noted that Pope John Paul II, in declaring in April 2000 that the Second Sunday of Easter would have the name of "Sunday of The Divine Mercy," did not create new liturgical texts. "Providentially, the reform of the texts of the 1962 Missal, following on the Second Vatican Council, had already supplied us with prayers and readings that speak of the mystery of God's mercy."
I also gave Father a little pamphlet with a brief biography of St. Faustina as he is not very familiar with her. And then I prayed.
But back to the Vigil - I had that realization and then as I gazed on the consecrated Host I just said, "Jesus, I trust in you!" Maybe we won't have a homily about it this year. Maybe it won't even be next year. But if and when it happens it will be in God's time - which is NOT our own.
In the meantime I will pray the Chaplet for Father's mom because "One of the best means of assisting the dying is the one that Jesus revealed to St. Faustina and insisted that she use often, even continuously: The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy. Jesus said, "My daughter, encourage souls to say the chaplet which I have given to you. It pleases Me to grant everything they ask of Me by saying the chaplet. ... Write that when they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the merciful Savior" (Diary, 1541).
Earlier, our Lord said to her, "At the hour of their death, I defend as My own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or when others say it for a dying person, the indulgence is the same" (Diary, 811).
And one closing thought. Jesus knows how awful it is to lose your mother. Maybe that's why His mother didn't die but was assumed into Heaven....
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PS...two amazing opportunities to evangelize these last few days - will post more about them tomorrow.
