If Pope Francis is remembered by historians for anything, likely, he will be remembered for his emphasis on the mercy of God. As we all know, Pope Francis, now three years into his pontificate opened for us and the whole world, this Jubilee Year of Mercy. Yet, really, he was speaking about Mercy from very early on in his pontificate.
Pope for just about a month, he celebrated today’s special feast, the feast of Divine Mercy, back in 2013. He spoke at that time of how "true peace ... comes from the experience of God's mercy," of Jesus Christ revealing Himself to us as "Mercy Incarnate," and of our call to boldly "proclaim Christ the Risen Lord" by "trusting in the mercy of the Lord forever." And I’d like to talk today about those three points: that peace comes from experiencing God’s mercy, that Jesus is Mercy incarnate, and that God calls upon all us to proclaim that mercy.
So, first, let’s talk about peace. Pope Francis explains that the words of Jesus heard in the Gospel today, “Peace be with you!” is not a simple greeting. Jesus offers peace that the world cannot give. Peace is a precious gift truly offered by God through Jesus Christ. The Pope said, “Peace is the fruit of the victory of God over evil, it is the fruit of forgiveness. And so it is: true peace, profound peace, comes from the experience of God's mercy.” Over the last two weeks we’ve celebrated the Passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. All that he suffered on Good Friday, the scourging, the mockery, the torture, the exhaustion, the pain, he suffered that we may know peace—that peace that comes from experiencing the forgiveness of God.
This time of year, priests often spend a lot of time celebrating the sacrament of confession. In confession, the Christian soul which has fallen from grace through sin, experiences peace in hearing those words “your sins are forgiven.” Whenever we make a good confession, we emerge from the confessional full of peace and joy, knowing that we are truly forgiven by God. And this time of year, in confession, I often give as a penance some sort of reflection or meditation on the suffering and death of Jesus, because it is his suffering and death which makes the confession possible. So if you want to know God’s peace more fully in your life, celebrate frequently the sacrament of confession, and meditate on his saving Passion and death.
Secondly, Pope Francis called Jesus “Mercy Incarnate”. Here Pope Francis echoed the teaching of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI who said, “Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: Encountering Christ means encountering the mercy of God. Jesus willingly gave himself up to death so that we might be saved and pass from death to life. Mercy has a name, mercy has a face, mercy has a heart.”
Mercy is not just an abstract teaching. Mercy can be touched, mercy can be seen. In the Gospel today, Jesus invited Thomas to look at his wounds, to touch them. Mercy can be seen and touched. Jesus is the face and heart of Mercy. And each of us, like Thomas, are called to have a personal relationship with Him.
Jesus said: "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." And who were those who believed without seeing? We are. We see and touch Jesus through faith. Pope Francis is saying that the key to our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is our faith and trust in Him, as we are called to live by faith and not by sight. Through the eyes of faith, we are invited to a personal encounter with Him as Mercy Incarnate.
If deeper relationship comes through deeper faith, we must nurture our faith. And we do that by daily prayer, reading of Scripture, studying the faith, reading the lives of the saints, reception of the Sacraments. We are also to avoiding everything that wounds our faith: sins of the flesh, worship of the false gods of power, prestige, prosperity, pleasure, neglect of the poor.
Each of us do well to consider the ways that we are nurturing our faith. When is the last time you picked up a rosary? When is the last time you read through the Gospels? When is the last time you engaged in any voluntary charitable work? When’s the last time you went to confession? Daily devotions like the rosary, the chaplet of divine mercy, daily Mass, stations of the cross, the scapular, lectio divina, are powerful ways to help us encounter “Mercy Incarnate”.
Finally, Pope Francis says God calls us to boldly witness to our faith in God’s Divine Mercy. Each of us has a story tell how our relationship with Christ has changed our life. How has trusting in God changed your life? What were the dark times in your life, when having faith mattered? How does the faith continue to shape your life now? This story is meant to be shared. Jesus himself in his sermon on the mount tells us not to hide the light of faith under a bushel basket.
Friday, at daily Mass, I talked about how the Easter season always means a renewal in our commitment to spreading our faith. We, as Pope Francis says are to boldly witness to our faith. So, each of us does well to get consider to whom does God want me to share my faith. Who will be this fall’s RCIA class? Each of us needs to set a soul or two in our sights: focus your prayers, your fasting, your preaching on one or two souls, and over the next couple months, reach out to them, invite them, minister to them, share with them words of challenge and words of comfort, treat them as your spiritual children requiring strict attention. They could be unbaptized adults, never having stepped foot in a church, they could be adult children who spent 12 years in Catholic school but who have fallen away from the faith, they could be someone struggling with addiction, or some serious sin; walk with them, share with them your story of how faith has changed you, instruct them, lead them to a deeper encounter of Mercy Incarnate.
“... the Spirit of the Risen Christ” Pope Francis says, “casts out fear from the hearts of the apostles and pushes them out of the Upper Room, to bring the Gospel. We also must have more courage to witness to faith in the Risen Christ! Let us not be afraid to be Christian and live as Christians! We must have the courage to go out and proclaim Christ the Risen Lord, for he is our peace. "Trusting in the mercy of the Lord forever, because he is waiting for us, he loves us."
May each of us come to a deeper knowledge and experience of the peace that comes through the Mercy of Christ and recommit our lives to sharing and spreading that peace and mercy for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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