Divine Mercy
Reflection
In the 1930’s,
Jesus chose a humble Polish nun, Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska to receive
private revelations concerning Divine Mercy that were recorded in her
diary. Sister Faustina became the herald
of one powerful message: God is mercy –
the truth of the merciful Christ. Jesus
said to Sister Faustina as recorded in her diary: “Mankind will not have peace
until it turns to My mercy.” Then in the year 2000, Sister Faustina was
declared a saint and is known as the great apostle of mercy.
Then on May
5, 2000, Pope John Paul II decreed that the Second Sunday of Easter would
henceforth be known as Divine Mercy Sunday.
On the eighth day of the Resurrection, the octave day, we celebrate
God’s solemn commitment, his covenant of merciful love.
In the very
familiar Divine Mercy Image, the red and white rays emanate from the heart of
Jesus symbolizing the blood and water that was poured out on the cross for our
salvation and sanctification. The red
rays recall the blood which is the sacrifice of Golgotha and the mystery of the
Eucharist. The white rays symbolize the
water of baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through the wounded heart of Jesus, His
merciful love is showered upon us. The
wounds of Jesus are the wounds of mercy to us. In the revelation recorded by Sister Faustina,
the Lord requested that the words: “Jesus, I trust in you” be inscribed under
the image.
As we gaze
upon the image of Jesus, this Divine Mercy image, Jesus is the visible face of
the invisible Father, of the God who manifests his power above all by
forgiveness and mercy.
In the first
Scripture reading from the Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul writes: “God, who is rich in mercy, because of his
great love for us, brought us to life with Christ.” The first and only step required to
experience mercy is to acknowledge that we are in need of mercy. I call to mind the prayer we say before
receiving Communion, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter my roof, say
but the word and my soul shall be healed.”
In the
responsorial psalm., we sang of the Lord’s mercy -- the medicine of mercy. The Lord is kind and merciful…Slow to anger,
abounding in kindness. God’s anger lasts
but a moment, his mercy forever.
The Gospel
is taken from the first seven verses of the 15th chapter of Luke’s
Gospel. This chapter with three beautiful
parables of Jesus could be considered the Gospel of the Divine Mercy of
God. These parables reveal the heart of
God towards sinners. The best known of
these parables is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. This parable could be renamed the Parable of the
Merciful Father.
I call your
attention to the first two verses of Luke 15.
They speak to the reason Jesus told these parables. The Pharisees and scribes began to complain,
saying “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus knew
that the attitude of the Pharisees to sinners was not God’s attitude to
sinners. The idea of God seeking our
sinners shocked the scribes and the pharisees.
Jesus teaches in his words and his actions that God desires all of us
who are sinners to encounter the merciful love of Jesus. As in the parable of the prodigal son, the
father embraced his son and showered him with mercy and forgiveness and
welcomed back home.
In the
parable of the lost sheep, we see the love and the care of the shepherd who
continues to look for the lost sheep until he finds it. The shepherd values the life of an animal so
much that he continually searches until he finds it. The Gospel message is how much more is a
person valued in the sight of God. As
God’s shepherd, Jesus is seeking and saving that which is lost. The God of heaven actively seeks lost
sinners in order to bring them back to Himself, and the God of heaven rejoices
over a lost sinner and showers that sinner with God’s merciful love. What a saint is a loved and forgiven sinner.
As we pray
these beautiful Scriptures, we ask ourselves what is our part in all of
this? We who are the recipients of God’s
divine mercy are to be the Church, the people of God, we are to be the visible
face of God’s divine mercy in the world.
In our parish communities, may everyone feel sought after, loved, and
forgiven. We are to be the ambassadors
of God’s divine mercy in our parish communities.
Thanks be to God; mercy is the central
teaching of Pope Francis. The pope wants
the Church to be a field hospital. He
says: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has
been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being
confined and from clinging to its own security.” Indeed, the Church is a field hospital that
dispenses the divine mercy of God to the bruised, hurting and broken people in
our communities.
We need to
honestly ask ourselves: could our parish faith community be described as a
field hospital in which the poor and the hurting people of our community feel
very much welcome?
Living in
the dark cloud of COVID-19, we implore God’s divine mercy to bring healing to
our world. We pray: Lord God, we trust in your Divine Mercy to
bring healing to our lives. We seek to
be anointed with your merciful love in discovering your healing presence for
our lives and for our world. Help us to
wait in joyful hope for the coming of the Risen Jesus more deeply into our
hearts. Amen.
This is the
day we celebrate God’s mercy. His mercy
is infinite. His mercy is greater than
sin, than evil, than suffering, than death.
In His mercy, we have eternal life.
For your
take home message on this Divine Mercy Sunday, I invite you to remember your
ABC’s.
A. Ask for His mercy.
B. Be merciful
C. Completely trust in Jesus.
Have a
blessed day.
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