Divine Mercy Devotion and the Importance of being Grateful by Fr. Cornelius
In our modern world, many people are increasingly engaging in complaining, revolting and rioting. They seem to have no time to appreciate the simple and beautiful things in life for which they should be grateful for, and inspired by.
Most people no longer count their blessings. Expressing gratitude to God has become a thing of the past.
The Gospel of Luke demonstrates humanity’s unbelievable ingratitude to God for His graces and blessings. As Jesus was travelling along the border between Samaria and Galilee, on the outskirts of a village, ten lepers shouted at Him from a distance, begging Him to heal them. Jesus told them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests". At that, the ten lepers started to walk towards the place where they would find the priests. On the way, they realised they were healed but only one returned to thank Jesus. Our Lord asked him, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” The man who returned was a Samaritan. Obviously this man was overjoyed and beyond grateful to Jesus for this miracle as Jesus had to tell him to “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” It is almost hard to believe that the other nine made no effort to return to thank Jesus. But it is a sign of the kind of men they were and the kind of hearts they had.
As Christians, we should take time to contemplate the many graces and blessings which God has given us throughout the course of our life. We should be wise and learn from the bad example of the nine ungrateful lepers, and acknowledge that is it important and good to sincerely thank God for His many blessing, particularly the blessings which we are not consciously aware of.
We are urged to move beyond the signs of our material comforts and embrace the spiritual blessings we receive every day. Our Mass is called a Eucharistic Celebration, a thanksgiving. At Mass, we give thanks for His love for us, which He demonstrated when He died on His Cross for us, so that we could be forgiven for our countless sins. But we also have the many blessings of the Sacraments, like Confession, Marriage, and Baptism.
But also, we should be aware of the importance of the Word of God, which has the ability to change our lives. The life lessons and spiritual wisdom we learn through reading the Bible and attending Mass have a subtle but powerful influence over our life. Everyone searches for the truth about life. Some declare that it is socialism, some capitalism, some science, but those who attend Mass and read the Bible have found the truth, but they may not always appreciative its value or be grateful to God for revealing the truth to them.
God blesses us every day. He cares, guides and protects us, even though we might not realise it. Why can’t we say ‘thank you’ to Him? When we go to Mass, we are showing our gratitude to God for His many blessings.
As devotees of Divine Mercy, we should be extra grateful to God for the blessing of this truly special devotion. The beautiful Image, the powerful Chaplet, the inspiring Novena, the insightful Diary and the holiest day of all, the Feast of Mercy, are blessings which God has given us.
We have the power to save souls by saying the Chaplet and Novena. We have an actual image of Jesus to which we can pray and talk with Him. We have St. Faustina's Diary which must be one of the most profound books every created by any human and on Mercy Sunday, God has made us promises which are astounding.
We, as Disciples of Divine Mercy, should be the most grateful in the world to God for this blessings in our life and we should make every effort to co-operate with Him for what He wants to achieve through this devotion, which is to save as many souls as possible and prepare the world for the second coming of Christ.