Divine Mercy Sunday

As we bring the Octave of Easter to a close, we reflect on the great joy of the Resurrection which we have celebrated for the past seven days. We rejoice that Jesus is not dead, but that He is risen from the dead, victorious over all our enemies. But are we really joyful? Are we actually participating in that victory now? It’s easy to come and sing “Alleluia!” and rejoice that Jesus is no longer dead. But is he alive in our hearts as well?

Perhaps we know the story associated with why today is called Divine Mercy Sunday. A Polish nun named Maria Faustina recorded her visions of Jesus desiring that the world know His message of mercy, in particular on this day. This message, and the devotions and practices associated with it, spread in large part by the work of Pope St. John Paul II, who learned of this nun’s diary and message and spread it in everything he did. We all remember last year as the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, called by Pope Francis to deepen our understanding of mercy and to receive it. But did anything change?

There seems to be two different mindsets in the modern marginal Catholic. The first is the presumption of mercy, in which it is known with absolute certainty that God has forgiven me, is forgiving me, and will forgive me. But this is not known through the frequent reception of the sacrament of mercy - the confessional. It is presumed that, since God is love, and God loves me, He’ll forgive me out of love. The other mindset is amnesia concerning divine justice. This idea goes something like this: since God is love, and God is merciful, He won’t judge me, He won’t condemn me to Hell. All I need to do is love Him a little, and everything is fine.

Brethren, I do not know where these ideas have come from, but they are both fundamentally misguided and dangerous to your eternal salvation. Perhaps it is from the chaos that has wrecked the Catholic world since the 1970s, not only as concerns the liturgy but catechesis concerning the divine mysteries. Either way, many of you live from false principles that lead to dangerous practices. God is indeed merciful, as the events of Holy Week demonstrate for us. Yet mercy without justice is a free pass to do whatever you want, and that is not what Jesus offers us from the Cross.

Why is it that Jesus endured the heart-wrenching sufferings of His Passion and Death? Why did the Father call Him to do this - to take on our flesh, to suffer, and to die? Why did all of this come to pass? So as to win for us the divine mercy we need to be reconciled to God. However, this is not a mercy that continually forgives while never asking anything from us. God pours out His mercy upon us so that we may be strengthened by Him to live our lives in faith and in justice. We see this in the first Christian community, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. They abandoned their sinful ways and devoted themselves to the virtuous Christian life, being transformed by the mercy of God to be able to live upright and holy lives.

This is the great mercy Jesus shows to Thomas in the Gospel. Thomas is doubtful, wary of the arguments that Jesus has been raised from the dead. But Jesus comes to him on this day and reveals Himself, showing the wounds in His hands and feet, calling Thomas to put his hand in the open wound on His chest, from which poured forth the blood and water by which we receive the new birth, as St. Peter says in the second reading. Jesus comes to Him and offers Himself so that Thomas may not remain in a state of indifference or doubt. Jesus wants us to receive that same mercy, which He offers to us not in His physical presence before us, but in His real presence in the sacraments, especially the confessional and the Eucharist.

Brethren, do not remain obstinate in presumption or forgetfulness! God’s mercy is meant to transform us from lives of quiet desperation to lives of holiness and communion with God and with each other. Jesus wants to pour out His mercy upon the world so that we may indeed receive His peace, that same peace He offers the disciples each time He appears to them after the Resurrection. Receive His mercy, and become what the holy child of God you are meant to be. Do not merely rejoice at the Resurrection, but be transformed by this mystery so as to live your lives having faith not in your own abilities or actions, but in the mercy of God won for you in Christ Jesus. Do as Saint Peter tells you with whatever remains of your life: attain the goal of your faith - the salvation of your souls.