Show God’s Tenderness

(Excerpt from the Homily of Most Reverend Romulo G. Valles, D.D., on the 2nd Mindanao Apostolic Congress on Mercy on August 30, 2022 at San Pedro Cathedral Parish.)

The painting of the Divine Mercy shows us the Passion of Jesus in a different way. On Good Friday the 3’oclock prayer is for the death of Jesus, that is why the feast would bring us back with more appreciation to the passion and death of Jesus which is the center event of our salvation. Therefore, in this Mass let us consider the Divine Mercy spirituality and the Divine Mercy apostolate, the whole devotion urges us to become closer, a profound appreciation and understanding of the event of God’s passion, death, and resurrection and that is very important because in that event in a most wonderful way, beyond imagination we saw and we continue to see the mercy and compassion of the Lord.

In particular, our devotion, our focus on the Divine Mercy will always be fed by the Holy Eucharist which always be reckoning the memorial of the one who said “Do this in memory of me”. Therefore, when we become active, sincere, committed members of this particular apostolate… again, the devotion will help us to become closer to Jesus, to see Him quite close and that is very possible when we frequent ourselves with sincere hearts to participate the Holy Eucharist. The Paschal Mystery made present in our midst in the Holy sacrifice of the Mass.

Now, two things will happen to us when we become close to Jesus in the Eucharist. One, we become like Him. During our time, we could never hear the word Christified, and now in one of the songs we hear “Christify or we are Christified” when we come to Mass we are Christified, we have the mind of Christ, and therefore, we become like Him. The devotion does not remain external because we ourselves can become also mercy and compassion, and that is very personal. On the other side, when we come to the Eucharist this beautiful sacrament, we don’t only think of ourselves but we always think that the Eucharist is an invitation for many. “Sa sugod pa lang ang Misa” always put in our minds that we are a family, that we are many who are called by Jesus, saints and sinners all of us are called by Jesus. On the one hand, we are Christified, we become very close to Jesus, we have the mind of Jesus but also we are called to become representations of Jesus to those around us. Therefore, ang usa ka maayo nga member sa apostolate will always be looking towards other, looking over the fence, not only to our group that but help us to go outside the community to those who need to know Jesus more especially His mercy and compassion.

I want to close this beautiful assembly celebration with the article that I read, it says, as Pope He published His second encyclical, His desire to establish this feast. It was published on August 17 many years ago in Poland, when he publicly prayed for the Church for God’s people to receive the mercy and forgiveness of the Lord. It is very timely that St. John Paul II said that the present Pope underline all the more that this Lord, that He wishes to be close to us is really the Lord of Mercy and compassion. We are told by this present Pope when it comes to our daily life, He said, if you get tired of struggling to be good, if you are discouraged to be good and strong in your faith and you are tempted to give up, Pope Francis says, “Remember, God will never give you up, the Lord will never get tired of you. Today in this Mass as we close our gathering it is a time for an occasion to renew our faith in the good Lord, and renew our faith in the grace of being present to one another, especially in the community of devotees of the Divine Mercy Apostolate.

I would like to close by my personal testimony, that as a bishop in Davao I am very happy of the presence of the Divine Mercy devotees. They don’t keep to themselves, “ang tatak nila ang ilang dating” they are always with us in the life of the parish, always showing their love for the Lord, and their love for the Church, and particularly in silent ways that they pay attention to the needy and to those who need the mercy and goodness of the Lord. Pope Francis is using another word for mercy and compassion and he says, the challenge today, is to show to people the tenderness of God. Again, the challenge for us as we struggle to be faithful, committed, active members of the Divine Mercy Apostolate to be really Christified. Being Christified, we become really in our life the deeds and words of mercy and compassion and then showing to others the tenderness of the good Lord in our lives.