Mercy received must be shared, says Manila bishop

MANILA— God’s mercy is a gift that must be shared with others, especially to the lost and the unwanted, a Catholic bishop said.

Preaching during Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said the faithful must respond to the gift of mercy by putting it into action.

“If we are valuing the Divine Mercy and the love of God for us, we should also share it to the others,” Pabillo said April 23 at the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Mandaluyong City.

“So this Good News that you receive should not just be kept by you,” he said. “We are not just consumers of the Good News, we are the heralds of the Good News.”

Catholics yesterday marked the solemnity of the Divine Mercy associated with the apparitions of Jesus revealed to Polish Saint Faustina Kowalska.

Initiated by Saint John Paul II in April 2000 during the canonization of Sister Faustina, Pabillo said it is an opportunity for believers to reflect on how God’s mercy can overcome sin.

He described Divine Mercy the answer to the world’s problems and in the country wherein “we are losing the sense of mercy” amid the spate of summary killings.

“We have a great devotion to the Divine Mercy and yet we allow the killings of drug addicts,” Pabillo lamented.

Close to 9,000 people have reportedly been killed in almost 10 months as a result of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war against narcotics trade.

“That means, according to him, that 50,000 to 60,000 people are directly affected, orphaned of their father, their siblings, their children, and their spouses,” he said.

“And it seems that we don’t care,” the bishop said.

He also lashed out at the attempts to restore the death penalty in the country, a campaign promise Duterte vowed to fulfill as president.

“We still prefer to receive the mercy of God when we are not able to share it to others. It’s really sad,” Pabillo said. CBCPNews