Digital Marian Helper Spring_2018

“womb,” which is a bridal and motherly aspect of mercy. The mercy of the Church is always the mercy of a mother. It’s the mercy that allows us to be born again. Not only do we see this mercy given in th e Sacrament of Confession, but also primarily and fundamentally in the Sacrament of Baptism, w hich cleanses us from original sin. The Church has always understood the baptismal font to be the womb of the Church fromwhich Her children are born again. This powerful spousal (or nuptial) meaning of mercy is also written right into our bodies as male and female. Written right in my body as a husband, as a man, is the call to give myself as a gift to my spouse — that life- giving gift of misericordia — the heart that gives itself to those in misery. As a husband, I must be willing to take on the burdens of my own wife. This is what Scripture means when it says, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the Church.” It means I must be willing to take on the burdens of my wife so she can be without spot, wrinkle, blemish, or any such thing (see Eph 5:25- 27). That’s the dimension of mercy proper to the bride- groom in theology of the body. The bridal dimension of mercy, rachamim , is written right into the womb of a woman, to show that love that welcomes, gives life, nurtures, and enables us to be born again. That’s always what mercy does. It enables us to be born anew. This is the connection, in both directions, of the need to understand Divine Mercy in order to under- stand the theology of the body, and the need for the theol- ogy of the body in order to understand Divine Mercy. This is what my new book, Love is Patient, but I’m Not: Confessions of a Recovering Perfectionist , is all about. My book explains how in day to day life, we encounter our need for mercy, and how, in all of us, there’s a gap between what we’re called to be and what we actually are in our broken humanity. That gap is either going to be filled with our own striving and perfectionism, or it’s going to be filled with mercy. We don’t have to pretend we have it all together. If we don’t have a paradigm of mercy, we think that our misery repulses God. That’s kind of the environment that I grew up in: I thought my misery made me unlovable. So what does that create? It creates a need to hide and pretend I have it together so I can be considered lovable. Well, the revolution of the Gospel is that God is not only not repulsed by our misery, but rather it is our misery that attracts His Heart to us. West will go deeper into this connection between Divine Mercy and St. John Paul II’s theology of the body (and how it affects our daily lives) at the 13 th Annual Divine Mercy Conference (see ad below). MH Christopher West Theology of the Body Join us for the 13 th Annual Divine Mercy Conference! FOR INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION: TheDivineMercy.org/bronx • 1-800-462-7426 ­ Sponsored by the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception (MIC) and Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR). April 28, 2018 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Cardinal Spellman High School, Bronx, N.Y. Eric Mahl Fr. Thaddaeus Lancton, MIC Ralph Martin Br. Simon Dankoski, CFR Msgr. James Lisante Featured speaker