Fr. Sostenes’ gave his first English homily on St. Patrick’s Day. He did a great job talking about mercy. Here it is:

Endless Mercy

Who never made a mistake? Who never needed a chance to start again? Who even when he was a child never needed to erase some work to write another word in a right form? Or even as an adult, who never ‘writing’ in a mobile didn’t need to use a “del”. Thus we can think in our lives or in our spiritual lives.

How many times do we need some strong erasure to give us another chance to write the life in another way? Some chance to try building again the things that our mistakes had ruined before. At that, this chance has a name, it’s ENDLESS MERCY.

“I want to meet it, Father” someone could say now. Ok, I will introduce Him to you, because Endless Mercy, it’s a Person. And He had already longed to meet you before your wish. During this Mass we’ll know Him better…

ENDLESS MERCY is our God, Who is stronger than our mistakes, our faults, our weakness, including our sins. So during the first reading we listened to Azariah acknowledging the Jews’ mistakes before God, saying:”For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins.” “Because of our sins”, he said, but what are our sins before God’s Endless Mercy? Sons and daughters, if the sin has strength to destroy us, God’s Mercy is stonger than it, believe much more. But It isn’t magic or a joke, so that He can rebuild us with another chance. But we need a similar heart as Azariah’s heart… in others words: “with contrite heart”. A contrite heart is just what God needs to give us his Endless Mercy. It was the Endless Mercy that Saint Patrick went announcing in Ireland. In its History we know that the island was invaded by Celts c. 500 B.C. and converted to Christianity by Saint Patrick in the fifth century A.D. Who is praying for us surely, so that we can go on announcing the kingdom of Heaven to others by his Language: English. We can’t lose this. No way! It’s an awesome sign from God. We didn’t know that the day chosen for the first English Mass in Canção Nova would be Saint Patrick’s day. And this is a wonderful sign that we can’t ever forget.

The sign of God’s Endless Mercy is appearing among us, as we could realize in the Gospel according Matthew chapter 18. Of course, that our debt is a“huge amount“, and we “had no way of paying it back“, even though we give him wife, husband, children, property and all that we can imagine now we’ll still owe Him. Nobody is able to buy the mercy. It’s free! When that debtor showed his contrite heart, saying: “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.” The master had pity on him, He, “moved with compassion“, forgave his loan. In other words, He gives us his Endless Mercy… He forgives us, what should we do with our fellows? It’s obvious we must give what we received: forgiveness. But, that man didn’t forgive the loan from the other one, it’s endlessly smaller than his. I don’t want to be summoned like that “wicked servant“. That man suffered and all his family, do you want this for you and your family? Give what you received, it’s easy, mercy, forgiveness. Did Someone make a mistake against you? No matter what, forget it, let the person be free and you will be too. The chance that you received to start again, give it also to your brother. Don’t be a prisoner.

Our God met you now, and if you have a contrite heart He will rebuild your life, because he is strong enough, always bigger than our mistakes and brave enough to give you a new chance, because He is  ENDLESS MERCY. Amen.