Divine Mercy Sunday 2026 - Unfathomable mercy

 

On the Sunday after Easter in the year 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II surprised the world, and even many of his cardinals, by declaring that the second Sunday of the Easter season is to be known as Divine Mercy Sunday.

Though the title for this Sunday is relatively new, the message of God's merciful love is certainly not a new concept.  It's the central message of the Christian faith preached for 2000 years.  God has mercy upon sinners; we are loved by God even when we are unlovable because of our sins—no matter how sinful, God's forgiveness is available to all who turn to Him.

The celebration of Divine Mercy is a fitting conclusion to the octave of Easter.  On Easter Sunday we celebrated the triumph of God's love over the powers of sin and death.  Jesus' resurrection shows that Sin and death do not get the last word.  God did not counter our sin with fiery wrath from heaven.  Rather, God defeated man’s sin in a totally unimaginable and unexpected way, Mercy.

Think about it.  On Mount Calvary, we violently rejected God in the flesh.  Everytime we sin, we reject God, but the crucifixion, in a sense, is man's ultimate rejection of God.  At that moment, more than any in human history, God would have been justified in simply ending this whole thing project, condemning us as too sick, too depraved, so corrupt we’d rather kill God than admit our errors. 

Yet from the cross Jesus pronounces not wrath, but forgiveness—not an end to mankind, but an end to the reign of sin and death. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. And from his side flowed blood and water flowed as rays of divine mercy made available to all people in the Sacraments of the Church. 

The Gospel reading for this Divine Mercy Sunday echoes the message of mercy. Entering the upper room, in the midst of his disciples—he shows them, his wounds, and in doing so he wasn’t pointing them out as if to shame his disciples, or to announce his vengeance. “Look what you did, now it’s time for you to pay”. Rather, he points to his wounds, and says, “peace”. 

Today is a day for the Church to celebrate God’s mercy and to commit to making that message known.

Back in the year 2000, when Pope St. John Paul instituted today as the feast of mercy, he did so in the context of the canonization of a saint—a little known polish nun at the time named Saint Faustina Kowalska. 

In the 1930’s Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska, received a series of private revelations from the Lord himself about his desire to make known to the world his mercy.

Listen to the words of Jesus recorded by Sister Faustina:

“My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and a shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day are opened all the divine floodgates through which graces flow. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My mercy.”

The Lord Jesus could have appeared at any moment in history, but he chose the 1930s. The 1930s began an era of cruelty and godlessness. It saw the rise of totalitarian atheistic governments and rampant materialism and the trampling of basic human freedoms like the right to life. Merciless governments, merciless war crimes, merciless genocides in Europe and Africa, merciless wars over the resources of the earth, merciless religious persecutions, merciless killing of babies, merciless pursuit of wealth at the expense of human life. And Jesus shows up, and tells Sr. Faustina, make my mercy known.

It is unfathomable, that in the face of evil, Jesus wants us to announce His mercy. Most of us would be quick to condemn the world for all of these grave sins, but Jesus says that our task to announce his mercy. “Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy.”  

Though, of course, the Church must speak the truth about sin. We must never grow tired of announcing mercy. To whom? To everyone. To fallen away Catholics, “you are welcome back”. To those ashamed by their sins: “don’t be afraid of confession, Jesus is waiting for you there.” To filled with anger and hatred: “you will find peace in forgiveness”. To those who think their sins are too big for God to forgive: “God’s mercy is boundless”. To those trapped in patterns of sin, resentment, impurity, addiction, or indifference: Jesus Christ is not done with you: “Trust in Jesus, and you will find freedom, peace, joy, and meaning”. 

There are souls who feel that it is pointless to change their ways because they think are too far gone, they are too entrenched in sin to change: God’s mercy can save you. Allow yourself to be saved. Whatever your sins might be, they can be forgiven, whatever the direction of your life, it can be changed. 

Brothers and sisters, the world is starving for mercy, even when it does not know how to name what it is seeking. Beneath so much anger, confusion, and violence are wounded human hearts—estranged from God—locked in fear. And so the Church, like her risen Lord entering the locked room, must enter those locked rooms say again and again: God’s Peace be with you. No door is truly locked to Jesus. And the message of mercy can reach the most hardened hearts when we have the courage to share it.

Today, on Divine Mercy Sunday, we thank God for his infinite mercy for each of us and for all—pro omnibus et singulis. But we also pray for the grace to be ambassadors of mercy—for as the Lord has proclaimed peace, so must we—to lead souls to the font of mercy: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, whose mercy endures forever, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

2nd Week of Easter 2021 - Monday (EF) - John's Gospel and the Locked Room

Throughout the Easter Octave last week, the Gospel readings of the different accounts of the Lord’s resurrection and his appearances to his disciples were taken from all four Gospels.

For the remaining Sundays and ferial days up until Pentecost, the Gospels are taken from St. John. The Gospel of John was the last of the Gospels to be written, nearly 60 years after the Lord’s death and resurrection.  By then there were thousands of Christians in places like Jerusalem, Rome, and Antioch. 

And St. John seems to address his Gospel to those who had already received the Gospel—those who had already been baptized. They had already responded to the Gospel call to faith and conversion, even in the midst of early persecutions. By then, many of the apostles, including St. Peter and St. Paul had been martyred. St. John records many deep and often mystical teachings of the Lord, fitting for those Christians who had already begun to grasp the fundamentals. 

It's sometimes said that where Matthew, Mark, and Luke reveal the flesh and bones of Jesus, St. John reveals His Spirit—His Heart. After all, the fourth Gospel was written by the beloved one who laid his head near the heart of Jesus at the last supper. John’s Gospel draws us into a deep, intimately, loving relationship with the Master—invites us to recline our ears, like St. John near the heart of Jesus, to grow in love of him and to hear his love for us.

The story of the Lord’ appearance in the locked upper room would have deeply resonated with the Christians of the late 1st century. Again, with those early persecutions, they would be tempted to lock themselves away from the world, like the disciples in the Gospel. They, like the apostle Thomas were being called to believe and witness without having met the Lord personally, they might not have even met a living apostle. 

But the Lord pronounces a blessedness for those who have not seen, and still believe. Pope Benedict XVI called the Lord’s pronouncement, “the beatitude of faith”. “In every epoch and in every place” Pope Benedict said, “blessed are those who, on the strength of the word of God proclaimed in the Church and witnessed by Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the love of God incarnate, Mercy incarnate. And this applies for each one of us!”

We like St. Thomas, are called to peer lovingly and gratefully at the wounds of the Lord in his hands and side, to come to discover more deeply through the gift of faith his great love for us. Through the beatitude of faith—our lives become filled with that divine love which impels us into the world to draw others to him, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.