Attendee shares insights on French priest’s talk on God’s mercy

KOTA KINABALU – One of the attendees of the talk on the mercy of God given by Fr Dominique Faure (R) of the Brothers of St John France shared her insights on his talk to the young adults prayer group at the Sacred Heart Parish Hall on 14 Jan 2016.

According to Vicky Kong, the following was what he said:

We should start the year with conversion! A conversion towards being merciful. What is mercy? It is giving to another, more than what is deserved. It is more than just forgiving and not talking about the hurt anymore. Instead it means to forgive, and then to use that hurt to love more.

Mercy is only available in truth and truth means what I know correlates with what I see. Meanwhile the opposite of truth is the imaginative life that we perceive.  Imagination becomes an obstacle to meeting a friend. We cannot meet someone in the past, or in the future. We can only meet a person NOW in the present.

One does not KNOW a friend just by finding out the facts about them; for example, reading on Facebook where they went on holiday, what they studied in university, are they enjoying their jobs, how many children they have. Getting to know a person requires spending time with them.

The culture that we live in today is real to us:
Culture of despair (losing hope because we are constantly disappointed)
Culture of lies (advertisements, media)
Culture of seduction (money, fame, time, pleasure)

The “sickness” of today is the fear of loneliness, not knowing what others are doing constantly (eg always looking at update in Facebook, checking messages on our mobile phones as soon as we get off a plane etc.)

So what is the truth in living? The truth is that I need to live in friendship, constantly relating and depending on Christ.

Where do we meet Christ? We meet Christ in:
People   (“What you have done to each one of them, you have done to me,” [cf Matt 25:40])
Eucharist
Bible
Prayer

How do we do this? We are only able to do it with divine help. In Baptism, it is our responsibility to bring hope and joy to others. We need to develop friendship with Christ and re-order our life towards Him. When we receive information, it should lead us to ACT. Otherwise that information serves no purpose. Praying with others or in a group is only a way to love Christ. The ultimate end in loving Christ is to pray and spend time with Him alone.