The Court Jester jingled when he walked, not only from the bells on his hat but also from the coins in his pouch. He was a hilarious performer and a sly pickpocket. After following the Jester through his adventurous life of jolly thievery, we behold the distress of a soul who realizes how one’s misdeeds impact others. In the height of this sorrow, we encounter the great power of mercy ministered by a knight whose king is truly the King of Mercy. The Jester is transformed before the reader mercifully and gloriously changed. Based on entry nos. 1448 and 1507 of the Diary of St. Faustina, The Crooked Court Jester and the Last Knight brings the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to life. It reveals the powerful spiritual healing of repentance, confession, and the anointing, all gifts of the King of Mercy. The words of the King of Mercy, “If you want, I will fight for you,” are a direct quote from Faustina’s diary!
The Crooked Court Jester and the Last Knight
This story is a great Lenten themed tale based on the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Last Rites. It illustrates a poignant passage from the Diary of St. Faustina #1448:
Write, speak of My mercy. Tell souls where they are to look for solace, that is, in the Tribunal of Mercy [the Sacrament of Reconciliation]. There the greatest miracles take place [and] are incessantly repeated. To avail oneself of this miracle, it is not necessary to go on a great pilgrimage, or to carry out some external ceremony; it suffices to come with faith to the feet of My representative and to reveal to Him one’s misery, and the miracle of Divine Mercy will be fully demonstrated. Were souls like a decaying corpse so that from a human standpoint there would be no [hope of] restoration and everything would already be lost, it is not so with God. The miracle of Divine Mercy restores that soul in full.
And no. 1507:
“All grace flows from mercy, and the last hour abounds with mercy for us. Let no one doubt concerning the goodness of God; even if a person’s sins were as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone is necessary; that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God’s merciful grace, and then God will do the rest.”
