A Mercy That Sends Us Forth

Ezra 9:5-9, Tob 13, Lk 9:1-6

Our Lady of Mercy

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, on this feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the Mother of God invites us to contemplate the profound, unmerited gift of Divine Mercy and our own call to become instruments of that very same mercy in a wounded world.

Our journey begins with Ezra in a moment of raw, penitential prayer. The Israelites have returned from exile, yet they have intermarried with foreign tribes and compromised their faith. Ezra, in a profound act of solidarity, tears his cloak and offers a prayer that is not his own, but on behalf of his people. He does not make excuses. He stands in the truth of their failure, confessing, “our wicked deeds are heaped up above our heads.” But in the very heart of his confession, he makes a stunning turn. He recalls that even in their misery, God has not abandoned them. “But now, for a brief moment, mercy has come to us from the Lord.” This mercy is a “reviving”—a gift of grace they did not deserve and could not earn. It is the foundation upon which they are to rebuild.

This foundational mercy finds its mission in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus summons the Twelve and gives them “power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.” Then, He does something breathtaking: He sends them out “to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” He entrusts His own divine power to frail, imperfect human beings. His instructions are a lesson in total dependence on Divine Providence: “Take nothing for the journey…” They are to rely entirely on God’s mercy working through the hospitality of others. Their mission is one of radical mercy: to heal, to free, and to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.

God’s mercy is never merely a comfort to be received; it is always a gift to be shared. We see this perfectly embodied in Our Lady of Mercy. She is the first recipient of God’s immense mercy, preserved from sin to become the Mother of the Savior. And she is also its perfect instrument, who, in her first act after the Annunciation, goes in haste to share the joy and serve her cousin Elizabeth. She is the model of the Church, which is both the recipient of mercy and Mother of Mercy for the world.

As Pope Francis reminds us, “The Church is the house that welcomes all and refuses no one. Its doors remain wide open… so that if someone, moved by the Spirit, comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a closed door.”

The comfort for us is this: like Ezra and the Apostles, we are sent not because we are perfect, but because we have first been touched by mercy. The challenge is to go forth with the same radical trust, relying not on our own resources but on the power Christ gives us.

How do we apply this? We perform the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. We forgive an old wound. We patiently listen to someone who is lonely. We defend someone who is being unfairly treated. We pray for those who have wronged us.

As Saint Padre Pio, a great apostle of mercy, said, “Works of mercy are the grandest charity there is.”

May Our Lady of Mercy wrap us in her mantle. May she obtain for us the grace to receive God’s mercy anew today, and the courage to go forth from this Mass to proclaim it, to heal, and to serve in the name of her Son. Amen.