vs. Mother Teresa
The Wrath of God
or Divine Mercy?
“And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: ‘Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance.’ ”
Matthew 3:7-8
“Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile.”
Mother Teresa
And God knows we all need it.
Every day.
And God knows He wants to give it.
Every day.
But we are living in a time — if we believe the great prophet of Divine Mercy, St. Faustina — that soon the King of Mercy will eventually give way to the Just Judge!
We have plenty of time, as a Church, to pat ourselves on the back for the great gift of our Divine Mercy Pope and the institution of the Divine Mercy Feast.
Personally, we cannot wait for the next Divine Mercy Sunday so that, once again, we pray we can receive the full measure of our King’s greatest Gift.
But we can receive it because we are Catholics. Because we believe in the Sacraments. Because we will go to Confession and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord in the Eucharist. Because we will venerate the Divine Mercy Image.
We, as a people, have a tendency to forget that our King is a God of Order — not chaos. He sets the Rules and He plays by them. Nor does He change them. And the Rule for Divine Mercy is not the “sinner’s prayer” or calling out the Name of Jesus, but in 1) the faith of forgiveness in Confession; 2) the belief in the Living Bread that came down from Heaven present in the Host, and 3) the honoring of the Blood and Water that gushed forth as a Fountain of Mercy for us in the Image painted with the words, “Jesus, I trust in You!”
If, even as a Catholic, one does not believe in these three things or only believes in one or two of them and, then, does NOT exercise and ignores these God-given Gifts in celebration of the Divine Mercy Feast on Divine Mercy Sunday, Jesus is not obligated to bestow His forgiveness upon the individual.
It really is that simple.
It really is based on His Rules and Regulations.
Can Jesus bestow Divine Mercy anyway He chooses? Of course He can! But the assurance of Divine Mercy — in other words NO PURGATORY TIME — is only in the above-mentioned Rules.
For most of our readers, we understand these Rules and live by them.
For most of the world, they do not even have a clue and live for themselves.
This brings us to one of our favorite readers, Frank, who asked us to clarify one of our comments regarding the path we have chosen. It is the reason this website exists; even more importantly, it is the style in which we are inspired to write.
We all know that Mother Teresa is a Saint and so is our Lord’s cousin who heralded His First Coming, St. John the Baptist. And as Frank pointed out, we stated that to follow either Saint in their style is NOT wrong.
The question is which one should an individual follow?
The answer, of course, can only come from listening in one’s heart and conscience as to the Lord’s Will for the believer. (And if one has Mary as their Guide, one cannot make a wrong choice!)
Many today do NOT follow St. John the Baptist — a path not noted for Divine Mercy but for the Wrath of God!
Of course, many people do not want to confront others with the Wrath of God — and that is perfectly acceptable if they are truly living the Acts of Mercy.
They prefer to talk of the Divine Mercy Pope; the love Mother Teresa showed for the sick and poor, the Acts of Mercy St. Faustina spoke of in her diary.
Again, there is nothing wrong with that.
The problem is that most people on this planet don’t listen.
We, as Catholics, keep preaching to ourselves — to paraphrase what one character said in a movie: “We’re our own best friends!”
But we are not the “best friends” of those who do not believe in Divine Mercy when we remain silent or take the attitude of “live and let live.” An infection that seems rampant in our Church today.
Indeed, even Mother Teresa fell into this trap when she stated: “I’ve always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic.”
That is not the pathway of St. John the Baptist.
He did not help a Pharisee become a better Pharisee or a Sadducee become a better Sadducee.
He spoke of the Wrath of God.
A Wrath which would descend upon them unless they changed their ways “for now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire!” Luke 3:9.
We have all seen the Wrath of God.
We can pretend we haven’t, but it was and is clearly and plainly visible.
It is when He removes His Hand of Protection and lets the evil one have his way by inspiring mankind to do that which is unmerciful. Our Queen warned us of this Wrath when She said that war is a chastisement for sin.
That Wrath has fallen heavily upon us in the last century.
It is called World War I, World War II, etc. Millions were “cut down and cast into the fire” — some into eternal perdition; others into the cleansing fire of Purgatory. This in the midst of our Lord speaking His Divine Mercy message to St. Faustina!
Now the Wrath has fallen again in the 3rd Millennium in the World Trade Center attack; in the blood of the innocents which continues to flow in the Holy Land, and in the land where God called Abram out of Ur.
How many of those who were “cut down” in the 3rd Millennium followed the example of Mother Teresa? How many followed the Divine Mercy Pope? How many had been to the Divine Mercy Feast?
How many who were not touched by the above three could have had their lives changed if someone had spoken boldly to them about the Wrath of God?
A Wrath that even the Lord Jesus ensures is recorded in St. Faustina’s diary when He warns that those who ignore His Divine Mercy will call out in vain for it will be too late!
How many had been to the gym the night before the World Trade Center attack to “pump” some iron as opposed to being on their knees to lift some prayers?
How soon before the next “axe is laid to the root of the trees”?
How many today have learned the lesson of the attack that at any time the Lord could say to anyone: “Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee!” Luke 12:20.
In His Mercy, God has granted the world the greatest means of communication since He destroyed the Tower of Babel. The Divine Mercy Pope has encouraged our use of it. And there are websites galore devoted to the messages of Jesus and Mary, the history of the Church, the Saints, apologetics, etc. Many of them are far superior to anything we could ever hope to produce. Many of them contain an astounding amount of information. Many of them are official; many are not.
There are, however, few that take on the role of the Church Militant.
A role clearly delineated by the great Saints.
Voices, like St. John, that cry out in the wilderness.
A role that can be found in the words of the Doctors of the Church.
Voices like St. John Chrysostom who warned that “the road to hell is paved with the skulls of erring priests, and erring bishops are its lampposts.”
Voices like St. Peter Damian who warned in his writings: “Who am I, when I see this pestilential practice flourishing in the priesthood to become the murderer of another’s soul by daring to repress my criticism in expectation of the reckoning of God’s Judgment? ... How, indeed, am I to love my neighbor as myself if I negligently allow the wound, of which I am sure he will brutally die, to fester in his heart? … So let no man condemn me as I argue against this deadly vice, for I seek not to dishonor, but rather to promote the advantage of my brother’s well-being. Take care not to appear partial to the delinquent while you persecute him who sets him straight.”
These are Voices which many Catholics today do not want to hear.
Voices which still challenge the “brood of vipers” that run our Church.
Voices that would make a mockery of our political landscape and expose the hypocrisy of those who feign belief in God while holding membership in secret societies that honor pagan gods and goddesses.
Voices that would rightfully condemn in no uncertain terms the road to hell many in our culture are following.
A road many don’t even realize they are on.
It became even more apparent to us at the end of September. Our Lord gave us the great gift of having Tommy Canning and his brother Allan spend a week with us as they traveled back from a Divine Mercy conference in Hawaii to their home in Scotland. We had the privilege of doing a presentation with them at one of our favorite parishes where the Church overlooks the ocean.
Tommy produced brilliant images of his inspirational Divine Mercy art. Then we presented our piece on St. Faustina, the Triple Crown Winner, followed by footage from The Passion of the Christ as the Divine Mercy Chaplet was prayed.
The reaction was interesting. No one was really thinking anymore that the time for Divine Mercy might ever end. No one — as many in the audience told us — had heard the prophecies of St. Faustina put into the perspective of historical events. Events that leave the world with only one final chapter: the Second Coming of Jesus, not as the King of Mercy (or as some claim a “Eucharistic Reign”), but as the Just Judge.
As we follow the path of St. John the Baptist who heralded our Lord’s First Coming, we are not called, as Mother Teresa was, to “speak tenderly.”
Instead, we are called to show others in our writings of “the wrath to come” unless they change their ways and bring “forth ... fruit worthy of penance.”
It is the proverbial “wakeup call” we hope hits them between the eyes when we are irreverent to those things our society holds so dear — “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” — as opposed to those which our Lord holds in Judgment.
We attempt to do it when we write articles on the seriousness of dishonoring Mary; on the deception of movies like The Matrix; or on comprehending the evidence that proves the Shroud is authentic.
We are not trying to preach to the choir, although we are always hopeful and grateful when we can give ammunition to others who fight the battle in their own lives, homes, neighborhoods, Churches, or anywhere they wish to stand up for the Rights of Jesus and Mary as opposed to the false rights upheld by a statue of liberty! On the other hand, many, too, in the choir are asleep at the wheel; one can easily spot them at Sunday Mass — er, excuse us, the social gathering!
We are always amazed as we can tell from our e-mail how Agnus Dei uses these writings to test the hearts and minds of those who have never been challenged before. Our favorite is a link to a website that considers us “wacky” — and as fools before God, we are grateful that those who go to this irreverent website are confronted with the reality of God and His Mother. What they do with that confrontation is between them and our Lord.
But “how, indeed, [are we] to love my neighbor as myself if [we] negligently allow the wound, of which [we are] sure he will brutally die, to fester in his heart?”
It is not an easy task.
It is the difference between Mother Teresa and St. John the Baptist.
Between Divine Mercy and the Wrath of God.
Between speaking “tenderly” and forcefully.
We choose forcefully because we believe there isn’t enough time left for tenderly.
© 2004 Agnus Dei Presents!
“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”
— G.K. Chesterton
by those in authority.
those in authority, even at the
highest levels in the Church.
