Chapter 3
Finding Christ Within You/Obtaining Mercy
So if you can believe the things that we discussed in chapter one and two, you may think us special to receive such gifts from God. We are all special in the Eyes of God, one need only look inside oneself to find Christ. Like the boy who worked saving pennies to buy a bicycle, work on reading the Scriptures saving the gifts God will send you and you will find Christ within you.
If you work on reading the Scriptures, you will find, Mat. 6-33, "Seek first the kingdom of God..." If we doubt in His existence, we must search for Him, and only then will we be able to decide if He does or does not exist. If we do not search for Him we can never know for sure if He is or is not.
So then, if you are willing to commit yourself to search for Him, your next question would be, "Where do I look for Him?" Luke 17-21 says, "Behold, for the kingdom of God is within you." So then, having committed yourself to search for God, you must look for Him within yourself.
How then do we look for God within ourselves? Mark 10-15, "Whoever does not accept the kingdom of God as a child, shall not enter it." So, we seek God first by looking within ourselves, and we look inside ourselves as a child. Mat. 18-3-4, "Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like a child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Now, Jesus said that the first thing you do for a child is, Mark 7-27, "Let the children first be fed..."
So we now know that, when looking for God inside ourselves, we must look for Him, like a child, and children must first be fed. But, in searching for God, the food we need is for our spirit, not our body. So then we are Mat. 5-3, "Poor in spirit." So, how do we feed the spirit? Mat. 11-5, "... and the poor have the Gospel preached to them." Who teaches us the Gospel? Luke 4-18. "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because, He (God) has anointed Me, (Jesus) to teach the Gospel to the poor."
We now come to, "Trust". Trust means we believe without question what we are told, like a child. If we believe, we then have faith. Romans 5-1-5 says, "Having then been justified by faith, let us have peace with God through Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into grace in which we stand, and exult in the hope of the glory of God, and not only this, but we exult in tribulation also knowing that tribulation works out endurance, and endurance tried virtue, and tried virtue hope and hope does not disappoint because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given us."
In this we know that God exists. Yet we must first look for Him, within ourselves, as a child, who needs to be fed, who is poor in spirit. The Gospel is the food. Searching the Scriptures we will find God, through Jesus Christ, who had been anointed to teach the Gospel to the poor in spirit. So then because of our faith we shall come to unlock the mysteries in the Scriptures because Jesus has fed our spirit.
As I have said earlier, if you read the Gospel you will find it difficult to understand. But, you must keep reading, because it is through this process, you are searching for God's existence. This is the tribulation in Romans 5-1-5. Yet, when time and place are in order with God's goodness, through your faithful search for Him, you will receive a gift from God which is called grace.
So we in tribulation, Romans 5-1-5, we keep searching till we have gone the course of endurance. When we have gone the course, we become tried virtue, because we did not give up our search for Him, because we searched in hope, that we would discover if God really exists. Romans 5-5, tells us, "In hope the charity of God is poured forth into our hearts." And we again know that God exists.
Now if we know that God exists, we have been enlightened, because if in our search for God, we have to believe in faith, then by our faith we received a gift from God, which is grace. Having received grace, we then began to understand the Gospel, which before we did not understand. So that what we did not understand before but understand now, has come to be enlightenment.
It is through repetition that we learn. In school when we were taught how to say the ABC's it took time to understand. Again, we learn from the process of repetition, then we receive a gift, (grace) from God. When we receive such a gift we have been enlightened.
Enlightened by faith. Faith the power to believe in something we can not see. So that we who have faith persevere in hope, because we have no knowledge, we have only hope that knowledge may come to us. When knowledge comes, we have received grace. Grace from God is to be enlightened with knowledge. When we through faith access grace and inside we know without a doubt we have been enlightened with knowledge, we then (reach You) reach that place inside of us where God dwells. Here in this dwelling place, (my soul recognizes it's Creator), God becomes known. This place inside of us where God dwells in our, (highest good).
Then we should do as Mat. 7-7 says, "Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened..." Mat 7-8 "For everyone who asks, receives, and everyone who seeks, finds, and everyone who knocks, it will be opened." Then our heart is, (immersed) in great joy, so that our heart drowns itself in (prayer and adoration), the mercy of God.
Note: The words in parentheses are from the Diary of Sister S. Faustina, book titled; Divine Mercy In My Soul.
Location notebook VI (65) 1692.
A heart that has drowns itself in the mercy of God is one that trusts in Jesus and leaves the door to his heart ajar, so that God can see the door ajar and come in. When you trust in Jesus and He comes into your heart, no sin can turn His unfathomable mercy against you. The deepest of your sin is but a brief moment in His Divine Mercy. So that we may come to know of Jesus’ Mercy but of all His Mercy, we shall never know. For His mercy is unfathomable.
So if the first thing that we have to do is to seek the kingdom of God. We know that we must look within ourselves as a child who needs to be fed in the spirit and knowing the food for the poor in spirit is the Gospel. So, we read the Gospel lacking understanding until we have gone the course. Then we receive grace, which is enlightenment. There, within ourselves, we recognize our creator. We have found God. Having then found Him, we immerse ourselves in prayer and adoration and drown our heart in His unfathomable mercy.
The dictionary defines the meaning of mercy as, "to show compassion to an offender." God's mercy is much more. His mercy, we could never understand, even if we contemplated it throughout all eternity.
Yet there was one who greatly understood the mercy of Christ having so often been instructed by the Author of Mercy Himself. Her name was Sister Faustina, she was a nun in the order of, The Sisters of Mercy. Sister Faustina was born in Poland on August 5, 1938. She was 33 at the time of her death.
Sister Faustina told her confessor that she was receiving visitations from Jesus. She was told by her confessor to keep a notebook of these visitations. Sister Faustina wrote a total of six notebooks, which were not translated into English until 1987.
Sister Faustina suffered much physical pain in her life, yet doing so with great joy in her heart. She offered her sufferings willingly to God for the sake of lost souls.
The diary of Sister Faustina, (Divine Mercy In My Soul) , is a sacrifice in itself. The edition which I have totals 697 pages, Yet, in reading this book I felt like I could here the voice of Sister Faustina as she wrote the words in the notebooks. I felt as if I was there as she sat to make an account of each visit from Jesus.
On February 22, 1931, Sister Faustina was shown an image and Jesus said to her, "Paint an image according to the pattern that you see, with the signature, Jesus I Trust In You..." Notebook I (18) 47.
Also in notebook I (197) 475-476, Sister Faustina received the recitation of a devotion which is done on rosary beads called, "The Divine Mercy Chaplet." Jesus told Sister Faustina that reciting the Chaplet during the third hour would bring great graces to those who said it.
In notebook II (229-230) 848, Jesus talks with Sister Faustina about the Chaplet saying, "Oh what graces I will grant to souls who say this Chaplet; the very depths of My Tender Mercy are stirred for the sake of those who say the Chaplet. Write down these words, my daughter. Speak to the world about my mercy; let all mankind recognize My unfathomable mercy. It is a sign for the end times; after it will come the day of Justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fount of My Mercy; let them profit from the blood and water which gushed forth for them."
We find mercy written in the Bible some 250 times. Mat. 9-12-13 tells us, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means, I desire mercy not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
Jesus states here that He came for the sake of sinners. He came for those who are poor in spirit. He came to give, us, the children, food. Here we find ourselves once again discussing the beginning of, "Finding Christ Within You".
As a refresher let us review the process. Seek first the kingdom. Look within yourself to find it, yet, if you do not come as a child, you will not enter it. So as a child we come. First a child must be fed. The food for the child who is poor in spirit, is the Gospel. So we study the Bible though we do not understand it. We keep reading till we receive grace, a gift from God for our faithful search to find Him. When the gift comes, the Charity of God is poured forth into our hearts, or as Sister Faustina said, "We are enlightened by faith", where the heart drowns itself in prayer and adoration.
So let us not dwell upon our sins, that our remorse would turn us away from God. We should come forth with our sins and confess them. We must do this with much regret having offended God through sin. Not only this, but knowing we are weak and that we easily fall into the pit of sin, we must immerse ourselves in prayer and ask that we become dead to sin.
Saint Paul tells us in his writings, "the things I do not want to do, are the things that I do. The things that I want to do, I do not do. Therefore, if I do the things that I do not want to do, then it is not I who does them, but the sin that dwells within me. Therefore, pray that you may become dead to sin."
Using this process will lead you to that place inside of you where God dwells, the place where Sister Faustina said, "... And my soul recognizes its Creator". For when we receive grace through faith, we do in fact experience God within us. Remember though, when we seek God, we must first recall the process. First will come tribulation, which will try in vain to stop your search to find Him. You must not let tribulation stop you in your search. If you keep on with your search regardless of tribulation, your reward will be great.
Mat. 13-31-32 says, "The kingdom of heaven (which is inside of you) is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it had grown, it is the greatest of herbs, and becomes a tree, that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
If you plant a seed in the ground how does it grow? It grows based upon how you took care of it. So is the kingdom of heaven, which is within you. You start off as, poor in spirit, as a child or a little mustard seed. How much you grow in the spirit depends upon how much you nurture the seed, or the spirit within you. As the mustard seed becomes a tree, so your spirit will grow, according to how you take care of that seed of poor spirit inside of you. There is no limit to our growth.
Mat. 17-20 says, "If you have the faith of a grain of mustard seed you will say to this mountain, remove from here, and it will remove, and nothing will be impossible to you."
We now having found the kingdom of heaven must ponder the awesomeness of it. For we have found a place inside of us hidden from our eyes, our touch, etc. A whole new world to discover. A world so different from the outside world we live in. A place where we can go where (again) we can drown in the mercy of God, and have life in the spirit.
Mat. 13-44-48 says, "Again the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered it up, then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has to buy that field." "Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, upon finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." "Again the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea, and gathered fish of every kind;... and sorted the good fish into vessels but threw away the bad."
These writings are called parables. Parables are simple stories which tell truth. Jesus spoke in parables and many listeners did not understand them. The treasure spoken of in Mat. is the person who finds the kingdom of heaven within himself. The men in the parables who sell all that they have to own the treasure, are the ones who find the kingdom of heaven and desire to know it more deeply leaving behind the ways of this world. In this, the kingdom of heaven inside of them becomes more important then the things they can see, touch, or buy.
We learn in these parables written here that some desires to give up the things in this world, for the things inside the kingdom of heaven. Again Mat. 13-47-48 tells us of a time to come when those who are in the kingdom of heaven, and those who are not, will be separated, as bad fish to a good fish. Verses 49-50, "So also it will be at the end of the world. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from among the just and will cast them into the furnace of fire, where there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth."
Just as the bad fish will be sorted out, so shall the weeds, be sorted from the wheat. Mat. 13-24-30, "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while he was sleeping an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants came to their master and asked, 'Master did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' He answered them saying, an enemy has done this. The servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But the master said, "No for in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; then I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them into bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
Jesus explains this parable in Mat. 13-37-43. Here we learn that the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, the bad seed are the sons of the evil one. Here we clearly see that like the fish, the evil children who do not enter the kingdom of heaven will be separated from the good children who do enter the kingdom of heaven, which is inside of them.
In book VI (133) 1784, Divine Mercy In My Soul, Jesus talks with Sister Faustina, "My kingdom on earth is my life in the human soul." So then, if we, by faith, believe that God dwells inside of us, so then by grace ( a gift from God) this will be confirmed.
So the time shall come when the good and the bad will be separated, and then there shall be "Weeping and gnashing of teeth" Mat. 13-42. In the parable of the weeds, the weeds will be gathered to be burned. The weeping and gnashing of teeth, and the weeds which are burned, are those who refuse the Mercy of Christ Jesus. They are lost souls, who choose the suffering in hell, rather then the mercy of God.
As I have mentioned earlier, much has been written about mercy. The Bible speaks about it some 250 times. Sister Faustina devoted much of her life to it. Yet, no one has a monopoly on it. Mercy is not just for a special few. Mercy is for all that seek forgiveness of sins with a heart that desires change. In this change of heart, we seek not to do our will any longer, but to do the will of our Father who art in heaven. Then our Father who art in heaven will see us and being moved with compassion, He will remember our sin no more. In this we surrender and conform ourselves to the will of God, that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
