It was fifteen years ago, that Pope Saint John Paul II surprised the world and many of his cardinals by declaring this second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday.
Though the Feast of Divine Mercy 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 almost 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. For on Easter 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 violence with fiery wrath from heaven. Rather, God defeated man’s sin in a totally unimaginable and unexpected way, forgiveness.
Think about it. On Mount Calvary, we violently killed God in the flesh. The crucifixion, in a sense, is man's ultimate rejection of God. At that moment, more than any in human history, wouldn't God have been justified in simply wiping out humanity?
Yet from the cross he prayed for our forgiveness, and from his side blood and water flowed as rays of divine mercy.
Pope Benedict XVI 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.
Today we celebrate the mercy that has changed our life. Who here hasn't encountered God's mercy in the confessional: “Your sins are forgiven, now go, and sin no more.” Those words are life changing, for God's mercy is life changing.
We pray in thanksgiving to God for the sweet mercy to which we always have recourse. There is no sin so great, that it cannot be absolved in the waters of baptism and the sacrament of confession. No sin so heinous that will not be forgiven by God if you but ask Him to.
We also pray today for those who have closed themselves to God's mercy. There may be people in our lives who seem to have locked the doors of the heart to God. They do not go to Church, they may even claim not to believe in God. Perhaps, there is a very serious sin that they are so ashamed of, or perhaps they are unwilling to turn away from a sinful lifestyle or sinful habits. Some even harbor a hatred of the things of God.
Today we recall that Mercy is available even to those who initially close their hearts to God—out of fear, out of hard-hardheartedness, out of unrepentance.
This is evident in the Gospel today. The doors of the upper room were locked. Yet, Jesus, risen from the dead, appears behind locked doors in order to announce his peace to them.
Even the most hardened heart can be unlocked. But we must pray for them. The keys to locked hearts are often obtained through much prayer and much fasting and penance.
The feast of Divine Mercy was announced at the canonization of a little known polish nun named Saint Faustina Kowalska. The Lord Jesus appeared to Saint Faustina many times, insisting that she make known His desire to pour out his mercy upon all people.
From Saint Faustina we receive what is now a fairly popular devotion known as the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. A short prayer, prayed on the beads of the rosary, imploring, God, “for the sake of Jesus' sorrowful passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world.”
The chaplet can be prayed individually, or in a group. It is prayed here at St. Clare before morning Mass throughout the week.
Jesus himself, said to Saint Faustina, “My daughter, encourage souls to pray the chaplet I gave you…help me save souls.” The chaplet of Divine Mercy is a simple but powerful prayer. We do well to pray the chaplet, especially for those whose hearts are hardened to God and are therefore in danger of hell.
While on her deathbed, Saint Faustina prayed the chaplet for a hardened soul. Through her prayers, she became present to a man, on his death bed, who lay in torment. While he lay dying, demons surrounded him waiting to take his soul to hell. But she continued to pray for him: “for the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” Soon, the dying man became calm, repentance for his sins filled his heart. He was comforted by the Divine Mercy which flowed over him, which came to him through Faustina's praying of the Chaplet.
If we do not believe that there are souls in danger of hell, we are deluded. There are people who are resisting God even in their final breaths. Yet, as Our Lord himself said to Saint Faustina, there are souls, whom he wishes to save through the praying of the Chaplet.
With all the hatred, war, violence, bigotry, and perversion, the world is in great need of God’s mercy. And now, more than ever, Christians need to be those instruments of mercy, through prayer, and through concrete acts of love.
Divine Mercy- God’s love, to quote Pope Benedict, “is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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