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The Archbishop of Lipa made an appeal to every community and individual to become merciful to others as they are also recipients of mercy.
On his homily on the third day of the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy held at the National Shrine of Padre Pio in Santo, Tomas, Batangas, Most Rev. Ramon Arguelles said that people must experience mercy to become authentic witnesses of mercy.
“Every community and every individual therein, ordained or lay can and must be witnesses and bearers of mercy after and while remaining incessantly recipients of mercy,” Archbishop Arguelles said.
He also said that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the experience of mercy, the experience of being embraced by the Father. This embrace of the Father, he said, brings so much happiness because it is love and people must never lose the certainty the Lords love to everyone.
The Archbishop also addressed people who think that doing good things to others does not guarantee experience of mercy. He said that the loving embrace of the Father unites the people with Jesus, the Divine Mercy Himself.
“The loving embrace of the Father makes us one with the Divine Mercy Himself, Jesus Christ. Thereby we become full time witnesses and purveyors of mercy. We become through, Christ, the Divine Mercy, more fully vehicle of mercy, individuals or a communion in mercy with a mission for mercy, the Archbishop of Lipa added.
He added that the Lord embraces the miserable, the unwanted, the neglected, and the forgotten.
“He does not shrink to be the life threatened addict, or the abused youth or the impoverished farm or fish folk, or the very sick and abandoned, the imprisoned threatened with capital punishment, the exploited, the orphaned, the unborn unwanted by self-centered parents, the children of delinquent, and vicious elders, the refugees escaping from the destructive wargames, the senseless powerful and mighty play seated in a comfortable thrones. Divine Mercy Himself pleads for mercy by being the miserable, Misericordia et Misera,” Archbishop Arguelles said.
Archbishop Arguelles concluded his homily reminding the faithful that Mary is the Mother of Mercy and is the perfect model to everyone to extend the mercy of the Lord to the whole of humanity and the entire creation.
