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From the Pastor's Desk: April 16, 2023
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From the Pastor’s Desk: April 16, 2023
On the Second Sunday after Easter, the Church celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday. The title comes from the amazing revelations of the Divine Mercy received from Christ by Polish nun, Faustina Kowalska, in the early years of the twentieth century. She was canonized on April 30, 2000, by St. Pope John Paul II. 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.
As we reflect upon the readings for this Sunday, we see in the first reading the reaction Christ shows to those men, His chosen Apostles, who had abandoned Him just two nights before. They had abandoned Jesus in His most difficult hour, but Jesus wasn't going to abandon them. He passes through the locked doors, passes through their fears, regret, and guilt, and appears to them. He hasn't given up on them. He brings them His peace. And He reaffirms His confidence in them by reaffirming their mission: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And then, just to make sure that the Church is fully armed to communicate this message, Jesus gives the ultimate revelation of God's mercy - He delegates to His Apostles His divine power to forgive sins: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." This is the explicit institution of the sacrament of Confession, the sacrament in which the limitless ocean of God's mercy overwhelms the puny ocean of our misery. It was the ultimate revelation of the Divine Mercy.
In the revelations of His Divine Mercy, Jesus asked St. Faustina to commission a painting. The painting would show Jesus standing, dressed in a white Alb, with His right hand raised in blessing and His left hand opening His heart. Out of His Heart, there were to be streaming two beams of light - one white and the other red. He explained what those rays symbolized: The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous [baptism]. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls [the Eucharist]. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross ... Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him (Diary, 299). The painting is signed with the inscription:” Jesus, I trust in you.”
On this Second Sunday of Easter, Jesus is reminding us of the power and abundance of His mercy. We should be full of joy and confidence at this reminder. But what about all our brothers and sisters who aren't with us? What about all our neighbors, colleagues, and classmates who have never experienced Christ's mercy or never heard about it? Jesus died for them too. And He is sending us to be messengers of His mercy to them.
So empowered by the Spirit of God we are called to be witnesses “of these things.” It is through kind and truthful words, by avoiding all gossip and useless criticism, by our generosity, love, and forgiveness, we shine forth like the white light of Christ's mercy. And by our selfless acts of service to others, seeking no reward except the joy of following Christ, we become extensions of the red ray of Christ's very own life, given up for us on the cross.
Today, as we come to celebrate the Eucharist where Christ feeds us once again from the very fountain of mercy, let's ask Him for the grace to trust in Him, to be living images, living paintings, of His mercy in this world so wounded by sin.
Please join us in prayer at the Hour of Divine Mercy on Sunday at 3:00 pm.
Have a blessed, joyful, and mercy-filled season of Easter.
With prayers, Fr. Andy
