Whip-Chords

“The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy” (Diary of Saint Faustina, at 723).

Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple (El Greco)

God is perfectly merciful.  He is so merciful – in fact – that despite the terrible sinfulness of my soul He will forgive ANY sin and welcome me into Heaven provided I throw myself on His Mercy…

I know this because God Himself told Saint Faustina about this…

“The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy” (Diary of Saint Faustina, at 723). He also said, “If someone causes you trouble, think what good you can do for the person who caused you to suffer” (Diary of Saint Faustina, at 1760). 

And yet, God is so much broader than this.  God is the Being who banished the fallen angels to Hell.  God is the Being who banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.  God is the Being who will judge us on the last day.  When Saint Faustina experienced a vision of God looking on a soul as the Just Judge, she was consumed by terror and begged God to please turn to the soul with mercy instead.  This is because the true justice for what we have done is so great that we cannot be saved or have any chance of salvation.  In fact, this terrible justice is so magnificent that it could only be appeased through the Passion and Death of Our Lord Christ.  And that means that I cannot bring about my own salvation.  I could never atone for my own sins.  It is purely through the mercy of God that I can be saved – and through His sacrifice…

And there is another side of God – God’s righteous anger…

“Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; you shall not make my Father's house a house of trade.’” (John 2:13-22).

Christ – God Himself – used a whip-chord to beat the money changers.  He went to them – hiding nothing – and showed them how the disrespect of God’s Holy Place is never tolerated by God.

But that Temple was just the place.  I am the NEW Temple of the Holy Spirit – and so are you.  The Holy Spirit comes into me through Baptism.  And when Christ took whip-chords into the Temple, He was angry at the disrespect shown to God in God’s holy place.  And now that I realise that I am His Holy Temple I am quite overcome.  For I am no better than the money changers, filling God’s Holy Place with things that are not holy.

And today I wonder if God has whip-chords prepared for me?  And so, I am overturning the tables myself and pouring out the coins.  For I have not kept holy God’s Holy Temple.  And for that I am truly sorry…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.