God’s Greatest Act of Mercy (feat. Fr. Chris Alar, MIC)

did you know that the entire bible is actually a love story it begins with a wedding and it ends with a wedding [Music] hi i'm father chris aylar from the national shrine of the divine mercy and today i would like to talk to you about god's three great acts of mercy found in the bible in fact we marians are excited we are working with ascension to bring about a new project called the divine mercy bible in the bible we learn about god who's the groom calling back us his wayward spouse that has been unfaithful and how he brings her back to himself now how does that happen all right the acts of mercy that we know that come from god are what everything is based around in our salvation history you know the three great acts of mercy and in fact our entire faith can be summarized by one simple concept that thomas aquinas talks about and that is a circle and it's the only latin i'm going to give you today because it's called exetus redituse all comes from god and all will return to god now when we think of god's first great act of mercy we should be thinking about the first person of the trinity god the father why because we attribute creation to god the father and god's first great act of mercy was creation so all comes from god but now what happened it took us all the ten minutes to get broken in the garden and after the fall of adam and eve we were in need of repair so what did god the father do he sent the ultimate repair man his son so in the second great act of mercy the second person of the trinity came down to redeem us he fixed us and made us better now we have been fixed and brought into a higher level than even before we now will be sharing in the divine life of god as adopted sons and daughters of god himself but how does that happen well the third and the final greatest act of mercy by guess who the third person of the trinity the holy spirit is called sanctification or divinization and it is where we are brought back to god the father for all eternity to share in his divine life wow can you imagine uh saint augustine calls this oh happy fault that actually we were fine before the fall we were had the preternatural gifts we didn't get sick or we didn't suffer but we didn't share in the divine life of god now god brought a greater good out of even the worst tragedy like the fall of the guard in the garden and now he brings us back to sheer in the divine life of god we're better than we ever were before but the question is father when does this happen a lot of people say well at your baptism that's when peter says we're divinized and that's true others will say it the beatific vision and that's when we enter into the divine life of the trinity and that's true but where does this happen every minute of every day somewhere around the world the mass you see at the mass we have this same three great acts of mercy creation the first act of mercy is in the mass because all of creation is present at the holy sacrifice of the mass even if you're not physically and the pew now what happens next god the son redeemed us by dying on the cross but father why did he have to die on the cross remember the penalty for sin is death when you sin or i sin we deserve to die since we sinned there had to be a death paul tells us the wage for sin is death now praise be to god that wage was paid by god the son who died in our place and paid that debt when you go to mass guess what you're just not recreating this you are actually there at calvary as it is happening that's right god is eternally present the son is eternally present before god the father with the wounds of the crucifixion and when we go to mass we are actually at calvary as christ is paying that debt now that he has redeemed us what happens now well in the third and final and greatest act of mercy guess who the holy spirit will take us back to god the father from which we came to now be sharing fully in the divine life of the trinity yes it will be fully realized upon our death in the beatific vision but we get a foretaste of it right here every time we attend the mass so when you go to mass know that you are that bride the bride that god is looking for to come back to him when you march up that aisle for holy communion at every mass you are the bride who is christ bride the church and who is the church we are and so when we come up that aisle we are the bride and in any catholic wedding who is waiting for the bride at the altar the groom and there the two are united just like in the consummation of the wedding night where the groom enters into the bride the bride comes to the altar meets her groom and the groom enters literally into us the bride this is the beautiful nuptial meaning of the bible so god wants us to know him to love him and serve him but how do we know him well we know him because god is father he's abba but he wants us to trust him that's the whole message of the bible trust him so that we can love him so in order to do that he needs to reveal himself to us how does god the father reveal himself to us through god the son if you could somehow capture the mercy of god the father and encapsulate it we have the image of divine mercy pope francis wrote about this in his encyclical misery cordial voltus the face of the father's mercy you see in the image of divine mercy we see jesus encapsulating the mercy of the father so how do we know the father through the son now how do we know the son well jesus tells us that answer too only through the holy spirit when he gave us the gift of the paraclete the apostles and all who followed were all of a sudden given that extreme beautiful grace to know him to love him and then serve him so we go out as apostles now after we've been given that grace we have an opportunity to know christ but how he says only through the holy spirit so when we are given the gift of the holy spirit we have now fulfilled and understood more fully the trinity but i also add to that how do we know the holy spirit well i think one great answer is his spouse mary you know maximilian kolbe called mary the quasi-incarnation of the holy spirit yeah she wasn't actually the holy spirit running around incarnated on the earth but she was like the holy spirit and she embodied all of what he was in his virtue and in the beautiful grace if you want to get back to god the father from which you came go back the same way start with the blessed virgin mary ask her to reveal her spouse to you the gift and grace of the holy spirit then the holy spirit will lead you to god the son and how do we know god the son we know god the son through his divine mercy and then once we do that he will open the door and he is the only way the truth and the life to be able to get back to god the father from which we came you see this is the gift that we have in the mass and that actually is the entire story of the bible the bible as i said in the beginning is a love story where god as the groom christ is the groom is calling his spouse the church back to himself so that we can be united forever to him and we can find all of this in the mass and in the bible so if you would like to go deeper and learn more about this incredible teaching of our faith please check out our new divine mercy bible it's an incredible resource that teaches all of this plus more and you can find it at ascensionpress.com mercy so thank you very much for joining us and may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen

Channel: Ascension Presents

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Keywords: divine mercy, fr. chris alar mic, father chris alar, marian fathers of the immaculate conception, explaining the faith, divine mercy chaplet, marian, national shrine of the divine mercy, divine mercy sunday, st. faustina, saint faustina kowalska, god's mercy, greatest act of mercy, god's 3 acts of mercy, catholic teaching, divine mercy image, ascension, ascension press, ascension youtube, ascension presents

Id: 1MJakJ2X_uw

Length: 8min 49sec (529 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021