Sunday of Divine Mercy
LESSON: The Ultimate Revelation of God's Mercy
Each Sunday we commemorate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, but in this period after Easter, Sunday takes on an even more illuminating significance. This Sunday, as we conclude the eight-day solemnity of Easter and continue into the liturgical season of Easter, we celebrate the gift of Divine Mercy.
So why is today Divine Mercy Sunday?
Saint Faustina Kowalska [koh- VAHL-skuh] was a nun with the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Krackow, Poland.
- Beginning in 1933, Christ granted her a series of apparitions which, at his request, she recorded in a diary now known as Divine Mercy in My Soul.
- He gave her a mission, saying: “Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart.”
Pope John Paul II read her diary and was deeply moved by it.
- On April 30, 2000, he canonized Saint Mary Faustina. During that ceremony, the pope fulfilled one of the requests that Christ had made through those revelations: that the entire Church reserve the Second Sunday of the Easter Season to honor and commemorate God's infinite mercy.
But what is mercy?
We typically think of mercy in relation to justice and punishment or a consequence. We show mercy when we acquit or forego punishing a miscreant or insulate them from the consequences of their misdeeds, even though they deserved it. However, as a Disciple of Christ, we have a much broader definition … where mercy is an act of love to release the suffering of another … therefore, the Church sees Divine Mercy where God’s grace is poured out on undeserving humanity for no other reason than God’s love, and not our worthiness.
And where do we see this mercy revealed in today's Readings?
In the First Reading, we see the power of healing flowing from Peter and the faith of the people who sought him out.
- Peter over this last week’s readings has been the first to tell us that the power comes from Jesus, not from him.
- People in today’s First Reading are just trying to fall under Peter’s shadow to be healed.
- Peter himself would probably admit that he is a shadow of Our Lord, but the Lord uses him to heal those who seek him, just as those who seek forgiveness and healing through the sacraments draw close to our sacred ministers, knowing that it is Our Lord who heals and forgives through them.
In today’s Second Reading the apostle John has a vision of Our Lord holding the keys “to death and the netherworld.”
- Our Lord is not identified by name but reveals himself as the “first and the last” to John, who is imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos for giving witness to Jesus.
- His keys represent his authority: specifically, to bind and to loose. If we ask him to liberate us, he will, but we have to ask him.
- When you see sin as a liberation, not imprisonment, you see the great gift of mercy.
- Our Lord’s mercy is the key to liberation from our sins.
In the Gospel, we see it in the reaction Christ shows to his chosen Apostles.
- They had abandoned Jesus in his most difficult hour, but Jesus wasn't going to abandon them.
- He passes through the locked doors, through their fears, regret, and guilt, and appears to them to bring them His peace and empowers his Apostles to be instruments of his mercy.
- As soon as Jesus walks into the room where the disciples were, he shows them his hands and his side. He shows them the wounds of his crucifixion ... So here is a question to reflect upon ... Why would the resurrected body of Jesus still have the wounds of His crucification?
- John’s emphasis of the wounds on Jesus’ resurrected body reveal that he is forever fixed in the act of love in which he died. They shout out to us that God’s mercy is more powerful than death. Like Thomas … Sometimes it’s not enough to know abstractly that the name of God is mercy. We need to see it. We need to feel it ... and ...
- When we contemplate the wounds of Christ, we come to understand the depths of his love and rediscover the heart of Christ, the Lord’s mercy … When we contemplate the wounds of Christ, we also see the wounds of our brothers and sisters and we become missionaries of God’s Divine Mercy to a wounded and weary world.
We might also see God's mercy in Christ's reaction to those who had crucified him.
- Does he punish them in revenge? No.
- Instead, he sends out his Apostles to tell them - and the whole sinful world, the world that had crucified God - that they can be redeemed, that God has not condemned them: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
- In other words, you - the pillars of His Church - are to be His presence in the world.
ILLUSTRATION: The Doubts of Thomas (further into the Gospel)
However, of all the Apostles, perhaps Thomas experienced His mercy most dramatically.
- It may not be obvious to us from the readings, but Thomas was suffering. With the death of his master, he had lost all hope … lost all faith … all he had left somewhere in the dark recesses of his soul was the memory of his love.
- So when he finally heard the news of the Resurrection, he wouldn't accept it: "Unless I see the mark of the nails... I will not believe."
- A week later, on the second Sunday after the Resurrection, Divine Mercy Sunday, Thomas is with the other Apostles, still locked inside the room; inside their own fears and doubts.
- Jesus comes through those locked doors once again, and wishes them peace.
And then what does he do?
- Right after he greets the whole group, his very next words are for Thomas: Touch my wounds, Thomas; believe in me!
- He wasn't offended by the Apostle's hesitation and resistance; instead, He understood his need for some assurance before Thomas would allow himself to hope again.
- Thomas sees this, and he sees that Christ humbly lowers himself to Thomas' level, letting him touch him, letting him feel Christ's real, physical presence...
- And Thomas falls on his knees and is the first Apostle to proclaim his faith in Christ's divinity, calling him "My Lord and my God"
We are all Doubting Thomases.
We all resist God's action in our lives in one way or another, we get mad at him, we don't trust him, and we rebel against him.
And it is precisely in those moments and those corners of our lives where Jesus wants to show off his boundless mercy, come down to our level, and win back our faith.
INTENTIONS: for Holy Father, Pope Francis
Earlier today, the Church bid farewell to our Holy Father, Pope Francis … a man who embraced his religious vocation inspired by God’s Mercy and who dedicated his life to bringing that Mercy to those most in need of it … and it all began with the recognition of his own need for Mercy …
In an interview with Father Spadaro, Pope Francis spoke directly of the call of St. Matthew (Mt 9:9), where Jesus spots Matthew and says to him, “Follow me.” Matthew followed Jesus and was soon having dinner with him, his disciples and “many tax collectors and sinners” (Mt 9:10). When Jesus was questioned about this, he responded: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Mt 9:12-13).
The pope spoke about this passage in the context of Caravaggio’s painting of the scene found at the Church of St. Louis of France in Rome (“The Calling of St. Matthew”): “That finger of Jesus, pointing at Matthew. That’s me. I feel like him. Like Matthew.” The pope went on to explain, “I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.”
This idea was so central to calling to religious life, that Pope Francis chose three (3) central words from a homily by Venerable Bede about this encounter to be the motto on his coat of arms as Bishop and as Pope. Those Latin words, miserando atque eligendo [that] roughly translate to: “Looking on him with mercy, he chose him.”
It was by understanding his own need for God’s Mercy, that he could see the same need in others, and that gave him “the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors aways open.” More importantly, he saw the Church as an extension of Divine Mercy, whose mission was to see the wounds in others and to relieve the immediate cause of pain from those wounds as the first step of mercy …
In his encyclical on the Mercy of God, Pope John Paul II said that “It is precisely because sin exists in the world, which ‘God so loved … that He gave His only Son’ (Jn 3:16), that God, who ‘Is love’ (1 Jn 4:8) cannot reveal Himself otherwise than as mercy.”
APPLICATION: Becoming an Apostle of Divine Mercy
What does this boundless mercy do for our troubled and busy lives in the here and now? What does Christ want it to do?
It can give us peace of heart.
- Anxiety and frustration and stress - the plagues of modern life - can all be traced back to doubts:
- doubts of our own worthiness,
- or doubts about the power and goodness of God, about his desire or ability to forgive us, to fix our mistakes, to bring victory out of failure and good out of evil and life out of death.
- When we suffer from anxiety, frustration, and stress, we are suffering the Doubting Thomas syndrome.
But the revelation of God's mercy wipes away all doubts.
Today is the Feast of Mercy! We have St. Faustina, Pope John Paul II, Pope Francis, and many other hidden “apostles of Divine Mercy” to thank for this day ... and while we should venerate the Image of the Merciful Jesus, and we should pray the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy, there is more we can do:
Divine Mercy Sunday is not just a day for reflection but a call to action. We are called to be merciful to others, just as God has been merciful to us. This includes acts of charity, forgiveness, and compassion towards those in need; in other words, we are to practice the Corporal and Spiritual Works (Acts) of Mercy. We should all strive to become Apostles of Divine Mercy.
So As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, let us open our hearts to receive God's boundless mercy and share it with others. Let us trust in Jesus, who says, "My mercy is greater than your sins, and those of the entire world". May we all strive to live lives of mercy, reflecting the love of God in our words and actions.
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