“How beautiful, meek and charitable is Jesus, the incarnate Wisdom! Beautiful from all eternity, he is the splendor of his Father, the unspotted mirror and image of his goodness. He is more beautiful than the sun and brighter than light itself. He is beautiful in time, being formed by the Holy Spirit pure and faultless, fair and immaculate, and during his life he charmed the eyes and hearts of men and is now the glory of the angels. How loving and gentle he is with men, and especially with poor sinners whom he came upon earth to seek out in a visible manner, and whom he still seeks in an invisible manner every day.” ~ St. Louis Marie de Montfort
This remarkable passage is very similar to the words of Our Lord as delivered to St. Faustina: “…I pursue sinners along all their paths, and My Heart rejoices when they return to Me. I forget the bitterness with which they fed My Heart and rejoice at their return.” Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters: all of you trapped within the worlds of addiction, pornography, and homosexuality – Jesus wants you! Because, He follows us now. He is not waiting for our conversion, or for all of us to be healed, or to be perfected – as He alone will accomplish that. Consequently, never be ashamed of who you are or who you once where. It doesn’t matter that you are a drug addict with track marks up your arm, or a gay man with AIDS, a butch lesbian, a Goth vampire, or a chronic masturbator – just make that first step towards the Light of Christ. And, turn away from all those disappointments, anxieties, and fears that have had way too much sway over our lives. Because the image of Divine Mercy (see above) is not simply Christ pouring His love onto Mankind, but also Jesus opening His Heart to us all.
When I was completely dead in my sins, at that precise moment, Love Incarnate, Jesus died for me. When dear Jesus swayed, heaved, writhed naked and alone on the bare, splintered wood of the Cross, as His Blood spattered His beautiful Mother Mary gripping the base of the Cross with every ounce of her being, splintering her hands as Her dearly beloved son cried out in pain on the splintered Beams, wood that as a long-time carpenter Jesus was accustomed to gently sanding and fashioning with Saint Joseph, Jesus thought of you and me.
He thought of you like your parents did when they watched you as a child from afar, with a heart full of love and awe. At the Cross, Mary wordlessly prayed to her son Jesus in His Divinity, begging for the grace and courage to stay with Him, as like a good Mother, she always had.
And In His Divinity, as Jesus wordlessly spoke to His Father, Jesus burned with Love, while in His humanity He burned with pain. As the pain His humanity felt intensified, the Love Jesus felt for His Father, those spattered in His blood at the Foot of the Cross, and for you and me, only increased immeasurably more.
For while speaking with His Father, Jesus saw every soul, past, present, and future, and saw deep down, how much we really want to reach out for Him and to love Him. Just How much we need Him.
And Jesus looked at us in Love, while asking His Father for the strength to die for you and me, to show us that Love triumphs over all sin, and death itself, and that all things pass, but Love remains.
For where there is Love, there is God.
When a parent has a quiet moment with one of their children, awed and filled with love for them, that is but a brief glimmer of the deep and abiding love God has for you, His child, dear Joseph.
In the final stillness of the Cross, as Jesus gave His soul to the His Father, after giving His Father every ounce of His love every breath of His life, is the greatest beauty the world has ever seen.
Jesus endured the humiliation of seeing His dearly beloved Mother weep and grip the base of the Cross with the greatest distress, as she was unable to fully understand why Her son had to go through so much pain and suffering, as His blood poured down on her. A Mother only wants to help her child, and Mary realized she could do nothing to help Jesus, whom she had once wrapped in swaddling clothes and cuddled with the greatest love as Saint Joseph beamed. The Infant who Mary had once presented with awe and wonder at the Temple. The humble Carpenter who had cared and provided for her as a widow after Saint Joseph passed away. The Jesus who had surely given Mary playful glimpses of His Divinity within the walls of their Nazareth home, including almost certainly flowers that mysteriously never died to express His love for her.
But Jesus was doing the Will of the Father, enduring all the shame and humiliation for us. May we think of Mary when others don't understand us and our need to follow Christ through thick and thin, and our need to love Him, but most importantly, our need to receive His Deep Love.
God Bless us all.
In this earthly life of ours, we will be crucified, whether we want it or not, much like the two criminals condemned to die alongside Love Incarnate. We will be crucified by the world's unbelief, our own internal desire to run from Jesus and back to deadly sin and despair, by disease, misfortune, misunderstanding, failings of others, emotional burdens, memories, financial insecurity, workplace problems, death of loved ones. We can either curse Jesus and try to handle everything on our own, or like the Good Thief Dismas, we can beg our Dear Jesus to show Mercy on us, and place everything into His Divine Hands, following the example of Jesus, who did not curse His Father, but totally surrendered everything, even His Last Breath, into the hands of the Father, who as most perfect Father, sought to protect His children from everlasting death to watch over them and love them forever in Heaven.