October 14—St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr

 

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“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Mt. 5:7). Today’s saint lived a life that needed mercy and he gave mercy to others. St. Callistus I was born a slave in the late 2nd century, and as a young man was put in charge of donated funds to care for Christian widows and orphans. However, he lost the funds and fled the city. He was captured and given the chance to recover the money. However, he was arrested for getting into a fight trying to collect debts. Then he was denounced as a Christian and sent to the mines. He was eventually released and taken under the wing of the pope, eventually ordained as a deacon, and put in charge of a Christian cemetery, called the Catacombs of St. Callistus, which were rediscovered in 1849. He was elected pope in AD 217. 

During his papacy he was attacked for being merciful to Christians who had violated Church or civil law: 1. He admitted to Communion those who had done public penance for murder, adultery, and fornication; 2. He held as valid marriages between free women and slaves; 3. He ruled that mortal sin was insufficient to depose a bishop; 4. He allowed apostates who denied their faith during persecution back into the Church. He was martyred in AD 222.

We live in a time when mercy is hard to come by. If we do not follow the “proper” political, social, or moral standards we are cancelled and reviled. Jesus says: “But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, … then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:35-36).

*https://live.staticflickr.com/4129/5080579818_8a38769a52_b.jpg

October 5—St. Faustina Kowalska, Virgin

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“Lord, let your mercy by on us, as we place our trust in you” (Ps. 33: 22). “Mercy” is the watchword of today’s saint. St. Faustina Kowalska was born in the Russian Empire on August 25, 1905, in what is now Poland. As a child she loved prayer, work, obedience, and had a sensitivity to the poor. She received little formal education but wanted to enter the convent at an early age. She eventually joined the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1925 and took the name Sr. Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. She lived in different convents and worked as a cook, gardener, and porter. She did not exhibit any extraordinary gifts or talents, but she was graced with an ongoing union with God that gave rise to her writings in her diary. 

“The Lord Jesus chose Sr. Maria Faustina as the Apostle and ‘Secretary’ of His Mercy, so that she could tell the world about His great message, which Sr. Faustina recorded in a diary she titled Divine Mercy in My Soul. In the Old Covenant He said to her: ‘I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart.’” (Diary, 1588) 

Through her, we have the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, a prayer that uses the five decades of the rosary to pray: “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” She died in 1938 and was canonized by St. John Paul II in 2000. Divine Mercy Sunday is the Second Sunday of Easter. We are grateful for her. St. Faustina, pray for us.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/200px-Faustina.jpg

July 30--St. Peter Chrysologus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Pope Francis has placed the mercy of God as key to understanding God’s love in our lives. This was also true of today’s saint, Peter Chrysologus, who lived from A.D. 406-450 and was bishop of Ravenna, Italy. St. Peter was appointed bishop of the emperor’s administrative center in Italy when he was 27-years-old, probably at the emperor’s request.

He earned the title, “Chrysologus”, which means “golden-worded” because of his effective preaching and practical sermons. He is even called the “Doctor of Homilies” because of his simple, yet theologically profound words. He once said, “Ordinary language is dear to simple souls and sweet to the learned.”

He also spoke about how mercy is one of the three things through which faith stands firm, along with prayer and fasting: “When mercy dries up, fasting suffers drought, for mercy is to fasting what rain is to the earth. The one who fasts may prepare his heart, cleanse his flesh, pull out his vices and sow virtues. But if he does not sprinkle his plants with streams of mercy, he does not gather his harvest. O faster, when your mercy fasts, your field fasts too.”

“Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you” (Ps. 33:22). This could be the motto of St. Peter Chrysologus, or even of Pope Francis. Jesus told us in the parable of the unforgiving servant: “Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?” (Mt. 18:33). He told the Pharisees: “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” He is also telling that to us! Pope Francis called an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy for 2015-2016. That may be over, but the purpose of the Jubilee Year is not. We are all called to holiness and a supreme expression of holiness is mercy!