Feeling thankful for God's mercy

When I was invited to be one of the speakers for the Lenten Retreat held last Saturday, I delighted at the topic assigned. I did not foresee much difficulty since it had been one of the focuses of my talk in a previous Bible course. It turned out to be a spiritual enrichment experience as I have now come to know.

Unlike lecturing, a retreat speech involves more than simply searching for and then compiling the required materials. The aim of a retreat is to guide the participants to reflect on their faith and to rekindle and deepen their relationship with God. I, therefore, needed to do self-reflection first and that was how I benefited in terms of spiritual enhancement and enlightenment.

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The theme of the retreat was ‘God’s Mercy on the Cross’. It was centered on St. Paul’s determination to be true to the message of Christ and to his Cross. After he had been struck blind by a strong light from heaven, he spent a long time meditating on his past deeds. He came to realize how much God loved him in spite of his cruelty in persecution of the Christians. And it was his experience of God’s love that caused him to face his sins and gave him the courage, wisdom and perseverance to speak out in defence of his own faith against his many opponents, who condemned the Cross as foolishness and a stumbling block (1 Corinthians 1:18-23).

While reflecting on this, I thought about how sometimes our spiritual development is hindered by our ignorance of the Truth. I realize now that this is often due to our pride: we think we know enough and are already doing the right things, thus refusing to deepen our understanding of God and His will. If we admit our inadequacy, however, we will, like Paul, seek God’s wisdom and mercy through a closer relationship with Him.

St. Paul advised the Christians to be reconciled to God, saying that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:18-20New). This helped me make up my mind to receive the Sacrament of Confession. For years, I had dreaded going to confession. While praying alone, I had poured out my hearts to God for forgiveness. I thought that it sufficed just to confess directly to God. St. Paul’s preaching about his being the worst among sinners, however, convinced me to pluck up the courage to confess my sins to a priest instead. And I felt peace at heart after that.

This has made this year’s Lenten season so much different from others over the past years. And I am so thankful for God’s mercy on me in this Holy Year of Mercy.