A Wave of Mercy is Poured out Over all Humanity
Divine Mercy Sunday
This Second Sunday of Easter is called the “octave day”. The last eight days have been celebrated as a continuous solemnity. Just as with Christmas, we sense that the celebration of Easter is just too extraordinary to celebrate only on one day. We need a longer period of time to voice our joy; to sing our alleluias.
Therefore, extending even past the octave is the fifty-day Easter celebration -- from Easter Sunday until Pentecost on June 4th. Its length gives us time to linger over this revolutionary Resurrection event.
In today’s readings we heard messages of peace, forgiveness, care of those in need, and unity in communion.” These are messages of mercy.
And in these messages, Christ teaches us that "man not only receives and experiences the mercy of God, but is also called "to practice mercy towards others”.
John’s gospel shares with us the emotion felt by the Apostles in their meeting with Christ after his Resurrection. Here, Jesus gave the fearful, astounded disciples the mission of being ministers of Divine Mercy.
He shows them his hands and his side, which bear the marks of the Passion, and tells them: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you". Immediately afterwards "he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained' ".
Jesus entrusted to the apostles the gift of "forgiving sins", a gift that flows from His wounds. From there a wave of mercy is poured out over all humanity.
On Sunday April 30, 2000 at Mass in St. Peters’ Square for the canonization of Sr. Mary Faustina Kowalska, Pope John Paul II declared that from then on throughout the Church the Second Sunday of Easter would be called “Divine Mercy Sunday”.
You may have noticed the portrait of the Divine Mercy in the narthex as you entered church, if you came in the East doors. Sr. Faustina described her vision of Christ to an artist and this is the result. She saw coming from the Heart of Jesus, two rays of light which illuminated the world. "The two rays", according to what Jesus himself told her, "represent blood and water". The blood recalls his sacrificial death and the mystery of the Eucharist; the water recalls the graces of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Christ taught Sister Faustina a prayer, which he asked her to pray unceasingly. The prayer is known as the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. A chaplet is a string having five clusters of beads, like a rosary; therefore, it is prayed using our common rosary, but on the Our Father beads we say: Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. Then on the Hail Mary beads we say: For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Some of you may have participated in the Divine Mercy Novena which began on Good Friday. Jesus told Sr. Faustina: "On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy ... On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for graces for these souls."
The essence of devotion to the Divine Mercy is trust in God and a merciful outreach to others. It calls us to trust God and to practice works of mercy by deed, word, and prayer.
Christ told Sr. Faustina: “My mercy is greater than your sins and those of the entire world. Who can measure the extent of my goodness? For you I descended from heaven to earth; for you I allowed myself to be nailed to the cross; for you I let my Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of my mercy. Come to me then, with trust to draw graces from this fountain. I never reject a contrite heart. You will give me pleasure if you hand over to me all your troubles and all your grief. I shall heap upon you the treasures of my grace.”
The Lord Jesus entrusted to Sr. Faustina a mission to make known again God's merciful love towards every human being; to pass on a new form of worship of God's mercy; and to inspire a movement of trust in God and mercy for man.
As we gaze on the divine Savior’s face in the portrait in the narthex, let us repeat what Sr. Faustina said and what Christ directed be printed on the portrait, "Jesus, I trust in you". Then, let us take up our mission to become that which we have received. Let us grow into the love of God through our love of others. Let mercy flow forth from us to all those we meet in our daily lives.