"I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

This was phrase was taken from the Gospel reading last Saturday January 19th.  It is a passage that Jesus spoke while sitting at table with sinners and tax collectors.  

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."(Mark 2:17)

This phrase has been such a consolation to me in those moments when I have failed to love and have lost my patience with those closest to me.  What is so interesting is these moments of spiritual weakness and sinfulness come after moments of such closeness with Our Lord.  After such grace and closeness to stumble so quickly leaves a soul feeling all the more low and a disappointment to Our Lord.  Yet isn't this the nature of many parts of our lives.  I remember as a new Endodontist out of training I joined a dental practice and the senior dentist told me that even after 30 years of practice and the feeling that he had perfected his skills periods of time would come when his cases never seemed to turn out well and he felt like he could do nothing right.  He said year after year these episodes would alternate back and forth.  His words have remained with me even after my physical disability has taken me from clinical dentistry.  

This experience in dentistry seemed in many ways to mirror the struggle of the soul.  Just in those moments when we are so close to Our Lord and in such perfect harmony a trial or temptation comes and one goes tumbling down again.  The ability to look up despite such sinfulness comes from a Trust in Our Lord's Love and Mercy for sinners.  Jesus' words to St. Faustina act as a life line as they remind us that Our Lord is just waiting with a burning heart to forgive us, we have only to ask.

"[Let] the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. My daughter, write about My mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice..." (Diary, 1146)

Tell [all people], My daughter, that I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls." (Diary, 1074)

"Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy." (Diary, 301)