The Light Is On For You

Hey, here's a thought.

Has anyone ever threatened one of your children?  Anything from complete annihilation to even just looking at your kid cross-eyed?  What was your immediate reaction?

No, be honest here.

Did you want to smile and embrace that person?  Welcome him or her into your home?  Thank that person for his or her kind attention to your child?  Let that person within a thousand mile radius of your child again?  Ever?  For as long as they live?

Yeah.  I thought not.  Me neither.

And yet, that's exactly what the Blessed Mother does for us.

I've never been able to understand why on Earth Mary would want to lead us, even welcome us, into the presence of her Son when we're the very ones who put Him on the cross in the first place. I know if anyone ever so much as touched one single solitary hair on my child's head....well, "Momma Grizzly" doesn't begin to describe what I would have in store for them.  Grrrrrr.

(...which explains why I'm never called The Blessed Mother.)

And yet, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, continues not only to invite us into the Divine Mercy of His Sacred Heart, but she actually appears to us through visionaries across the ages to renew her offer for us to come to her Son.

Wow.

This Lent, while we recognize that it was our sins that nailed Christ to the cross, please also recognize what Our Lady and the Church teach us about His infinite mercy: "The Light Is On For YOU."  Come to Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Humble yourself for a moment.  Confess your sins.  Release all that scarring pain.  Allow Him to nail your sins (ALL your sins) to the cross in union with Him, so that on Easter morning you too may rejoice in the love, mercy, and resurrection of the Lord!

Because isn't that the reason for which we're all here?  To know, love, and serve Him in this world AND to be happy with Him forever in heaven?

How do you expect to get into heaven if you're carrying around the baggage of sin?  Big sins.  Little sins.  Dramatic sins.  Mundane sins.  Repetitive sins.  Drop that luggage on the turnstile of confession and let is goooooooooooooooooo.  Gone.  Forever.

Te absolvo!

The Light Is On For You.