Dr. Robert Stackpole, STD (Dec 20, 2012)has a series of articles on Bl. Michael Sopocko and his book God is Mercy . Here i am quoting a few excerpts. The site is worth browsing..., more than that! It is worth meditating.
Blessed Sopocko writes:
There is a richness to the nature of God that many Catholics do not appreciate. We tend to forget that God is not a divine person but Three Divine Persons, and it is the mystery of the eternal love going on between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit from which the merciful love of God for His creatures comes to be. Blessed Sopocko — the spiritual director and confessor of St. Faustina — puts it this way:
No one is able to comprehend the tenderness, the glowing love and supreme happiness with which the Father, from eternity, is always generating the Son, and the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Son and the Father. All the brilliance, fire and joy of the love which acts, enlivens and enflames creatures is only a very weak reflection of the eternal generation of the Son by the Father and of the surge and procession of the Holy Ghost from the blazing Ocean of Divine Love which exists between the Father and the Son. (God is Mercy. Stockbridge: Marian Press, 1965, p. 24)
God's natural goodness sufficiently manifests itself in the Holy Trinity, in the eternal generation of the Son by the Father, and in the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, and in the mutual love of the three Divine Persons. Here is poured out all the fullness of the most perfect natural goodness of God. Through this, its tendency to communicate itself o others is fully satisfied. The creation of the rational world was not necessary to express God's goodness, since God has always been happy in Himself and entirely self-sufficient. Therefore creation happened without any external or internal compulsion, without necessity, but only through the infinite Mercy of God. ...
Lack of existence or nothingness is the greatest of all wants and the most awful misery. All nature shudders before such misery. Every man and animal flees from this want, fearing it above all other sufferings and wants, proving thus that want of existence is the greatest of all miseries. So creation of the world with all its beings is the work of the Mercy of God, which may also be called Divine Goodness in relation to the supreme misery of non-existence. (God is Mercy, pp. 30-31).
Blessed Sopocko, who served as the confessor and spiritual director of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, reflected on the causes of outright despair in his book God is Mercy (Marian Press, 1965, p. 81):
Despair is passion arising in us because of the impossibility of escaping evil. The name covers not only the feeling of despair itself, but also the inclination to it. ... It is opposed to hope and trust, so much so that while hope enlightens, despair kills. ...
The causes of despair can vary. Temporal or spiritual misfortunes, incurable illness, loss of respect and honor, financial ruin, threat of inevitable danger, etc. Under the influence of such disasters there follows a terrible depression which takes away all energy, paralyzes the nerves, renders clear thinking impossible, and even impedes breathing and the normal circulation of the blood, so that the brain is not supplied sufficiently with oxygen and ceases to function sufficiently. ...
If we search for the very first, deepest cause of despair, we always find a lack of trust in the Mercy of God. ...
Human reason can have knowledge of God by observing the visible things of nature, but, on account of original sin, it attains truth only imperfectly and with great difficulty, especially the ultimate Truth — God. It was fitting, then, that God should become Man in order to permit man to know Him more easily. In the person of Jesus Christ, God reveals Himself to the people. ... "Philip, he who sees Me sees also the Father" (John 14:9). ... He revealed to us the unfathomable perfections of God, and through this made it possible for us to know and to love God, and made us His brothers, as well as adopted children of God. (God is Mercy, p.7)
In the Old Testament, Blessed Sopocko cites the example of King David, who wrestled with this matter of trust in God throughout his life:
The poor shepherd David goes forth to battle against the well-equipped Philistine giant, and defeats him because he trusted in God's help. "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts" (I Kings 17:45). This same David reproaches himself in other instances for exceeding fear and lack of trust in God. "Why art thou sad, O my soul? And why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God" (Ps 41:6). "Therefore will I not fear when the earth shall be troubled and the mountains shall be removed into the heart of the sea" (Ps 45:3). (God is Mercy, p. 11)Our Lord invites us to trust in Him, as sheep trust in the leading of their shepherd without always knowing the path ahead themselves. Blessed Sopocko writes:
Through the most tender words and pictures does Jesus call to the soul to follow Him with child-like simplicity and trust. "I am," He says, "The Good Shepherd" (Jn 10:11) and it is this title which should awaken boundless trust in every heart.... [He] likens Himself to a Good Shepherd, Who knows and loves His flock, feeding it with grace, with doctrine, and with His most Holy Body and Blood. ... Would our Redeemer so indefatigably encourage us to trust in Him, if He did not want to reward this trust with mercy? ... Jesus, I trust in Thee. I trust that Thou wilt forgive me my sins and that Thou hast prepared Heaven for me. I trust that thou wilt provide all the graces I need to save my soul. (p. 12)Fr. Sopocko asks us to meditate above all on the most stupendous demonstration of all of God's merciful love during the life of His Son on earth: namely, His passion and death for us. He writes:
The greatest evidence of God's Mercy is that his Son found a means unheard of, unique, unfailing, inconceivable, worthy of admiration and ecstatic praise. He resolved to take our human nature, so that in and through it He might reform human nature and bring salvation to all men. Only He, since He was equal to God the Father, and at the same time a man, could give God's Majesty worthy satisfaction for the offense of original and actual sin, and establish a treasury, from which in the future it would be possible to draw continually in reparation for sin. ... Our Savior chose the most painful kind of death [death on a cross] in order that He might make satisfaction to the Divine Justice for our sins and provide for us as ransom the frightful pains on the cross as evidence of His mercy. (God is Mercy, pp. 19 and 45).
Cross:
The Merciful Jesus preceded us with graces and created our souls when Satan was already defeated, death conquered, Heaven opened, Divine Mercy revealed, and the straight road to heaven clearly shown. Truly, this is the golden age of grace, since at any time, the sinner can easily repair the faults of His whole life. Divine Mercy descends upon us more plentifully than snow flakes in the winter. ...We have, by God's Mercy, received Baptism in His Church, learned the principles of the true faith, and profited by the means of sanctification. (God is Mercy, p. 70)
Blessed Sopocko writes:
I know that God wills my sanctity, that He acts for this end, that He possesses a thousand means to bring it about. Joys and sorrows, light and darkness, consolation and dryness, health and sickness — all this for my salvation. So I will follow Thine advice, O Merciful Savior, which Thou gavest to St. Gertrude: "Make an act of giving yourself to My good pleasure that I may freely dispose of everything concerning you. ... In all unite your sentiments with the sentiments of My most Merciful Heart!" (P. 104)
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