Divine Mercy and Chef Boyardee
<<thump thump thump….CRASH!!!...>>
Lauren whines a cry that lets me know she is not physically hurt, only her pride.
“What’s wrong, Lulu?”
“I dropppppped my luuuunnnchhhhhh.”
After church last Sunday, I walked down the hall to the living room/kitchen ‘open space’ (thanks HGTV) to find a capsized bowl of Beefaroni - the comma-shaped noodles spilt on the floor, the splay of the annoyingly permeable tomato sauce into the side of the old couch, the curtains, the wall. Even the arc of sauce on the ceiling betrays her trajectory.
If this was a pure accident, there is no use in getting upset. They are called ‘accidents,’ not ‘on purposes.’
However, my sweet, creative nine-year old has been told, repeatedly, that she is NOT to eat in the living room. This was a defiant act, the result of a hurried beeline to the couch to snuggle up with Chef Boyardee and her favorite You-tubers.
My husband’s reaction was to make her clean it up. Mine was to help, sourly complaining while doing so.
The act of scrubbing sauce out of micro-suede upholstery and popcorned plaster somehow led me back to the homily I had listened to, not just an hour before. Our pastor, Fr. Michael, reminded us of the tenets of Divine Mercy Sunday, the feast of God’s choice to be compassionate and forgiving when He has the power to be punitive. Purposefully placed the Sunday after Easter, it applies the wonder of Christ’s prevail over sin and death (in the form of His presaged crucifixion) and it applies it to ‘the here and now.’ We are called to see it as a miraculous extension of God’s healing grace to real, everyday sinners like you, and most definitely ME.
Sin, like tomato sauce, stains. Jesus is the Magic Eraser.
Jesus’ very best friends and disciples were not safe from sin- the denying Peter, the doubting Thomas, the betrayer Judas. Jesus knew they would sin. He predicted it. He warned them! And somehow, THEY STILL DID IT ANYWAYS.
And yet, the night of Christ’s last meal, they all ate together as a family. Jesus humanized all-knowing love- showing us how to forgive even before the sin is committed, to choose compassion over self-righteousness, to grant mercy to those who “don’t understand what they do.”
My takeaway is that Divine Mercy Sunday is not just a chance to be forgiven. It’s a reminder ‘to’ forgive, ‘to’ love, ‘to’ choose kindness, grace, and humility. Easy to do when conditions are good; but my human self will struggle with it when it’s really, really hard. Not little kitchen messes (although this one was of epic proportion), but sins that render the sinner unlikeable? Untrustable? Unloveable? What about when that sinner…is you?
I will have to trust in the peace of God to show me how. It will require endless practice, because there is no lack of opportunity for dealing with sin. I made a conscious choice to stop complaining halfway through Beefaroni duty and focused on softening my tone with Lauren. After some work, we got it all cleaned up.
And within ten minutes, I saw her sneak out of the kitchen…with a brand-new bowl of food, to start the process all over again.
Susan Smith is an eye surgeon at the Eye Centers of Northwest Ohio, and has lived in Fremont for the past ten years with her husband, David, and their two daughters, Natalie and Lauren. Susan is a product of lifelong Catholic education, yet is always interested in having conversations that cause her concept of faith and religion to grow and evolve.