Transcript of Abbot Clement=s Talk on April 19, 2004

        I want to share my reflections on the Divine Mercy because I consider it extremely important.

        The church has made the week after Easter focused on Divine Mercy as no accident. In the Apostolic Constitutions the first book that we have on the liturgy in the church, St. Thomas says that the week after the octave day of Easter should be a feast especially to honor the assurance God gave him to touch the wounds of Christ. In the churches own experience of feast and octaves, the octive day is always the day of celebrating the fullness of the feast. St Thomas says it=s one thing to celebrate the essence of things, another its operation, its unfolding. The power of the resurrection and its mystery is Easter Sunday but the octave day is the outpouring of what the victory won for us. The church is saying its Divine Mercy.

        Why did the Lord have to raise up St. Faustina to call this Divine Mercy to our attention? It must be that we don=t respond to it very well. That God is awakening us to his tremendous mercy. It means that we really don=t see that God is good and that goodness is merciful goodness and therefore approachable, open and willing to do all kinds of things for us. So the Lord asked Sr. Faustina to have a painting made, taught her to pray the divine chaplet and then the novena and also made promises. I can=t go into all those but let=s take the image.

        Since we are in need of seeing things the Lord had an image painted. In the original painting Jesus is coming through a door. The first thing is to remind us that God=s presence to us in Christ in mercy goes through all our locked doors. There is no locked door that Jesus can=t get through and is pursing to get through. We have people self- preoccupied with their psychological formation and difficulties that it has created in their lives and they think that Jesus can=t possibly come to them but He does. There are no long locked doors between us in God through Christ=s great mercy. The first thing we ought to ask ourselves is what are the locked doors in which I think God can=t penetrate and will I let him in?

        The second thing in the image is that Jesus is stepping forward and he=s blessing. He comes to pour out his blessings upon us. In case you don=t get the message he=s dressed in the gown of the high priest with the sash. Which means he=s always interceding for us. That means concretely. He knows our needs so he=s praying for fortitude for this person, strength for that person, purity, sanctity, cleansing of people, constantly, always all the concrete things we need in order for us to be receptive of the divine life that he wants for us. The image reminds us of these things.

        In case you don=t get the message further, the light rays coming from his heart, the red and the pale blue, and white are images of the outpouring of God=s tremendous graces. Probably the best place to figure that out is the passage in John=s chapter 7: around the octave of the feast Jesus stands up and says, ACome to me and I have water pour out of you.@

        In the mystery the reflections of the church and its meaning even in John in the gospel it surely is the outpouring of his blood which is life and therefore a symbol of reality of the Eucharist and also Baptism and all the other Sacraments.