Divine Mercy Sunday
Cathedral of the Risen Christ
Bishop James Conley
April 3, 2016
Last evening, eleven years ago, the world lost a great saint. For it was on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, on April 2, 2005, that Pope John Paul II was “called to the Father’s house.” This year the anniversary of his death is in sync with the liturgical calendar as it was in 2005, falling on the eve of the Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday.
Pope St. John Paul II was the pope of our generation. We grew up with him and, for most of us, he was the pope of a good portion of our adult lives. He reigned as the Supreme Pontiff, the Bishop of Rome and Successor of St. Peter, for 26 years and five months. He was beatified and canonized a saint within ten years of his death – unprecedented in the history of the Church.
St. John Paul II had a special devotion to the Divine Mercy of Christ through the great Polish mystic, St. Faustina, whom he canonized on the Octave day of Easter, April 30, 2000, during the Jubilee year of the millennium. I was in St. Peter’s Square that day when, at the end of the canonization Mass and to the surprise of everyone, the Holy Father declared that from now on, the Octave day of Easter, the Sunday following Easter Sunday, would be designated as Divine Mercy Sunday.
And so today we celebrate the feast of the Lord’s Divine Mercy. This feast is especially important for us this year, in the Church’s Jubilee Year of Mercy. Today we celebrate the mercy of Jesus Christ, and we give thanks to the Lord for giving us this year of celebration.
What is Divine Mercy? Very simply, Divine Mercy is the grace and merit won by Jesus Christ on our behalf in his Passion and Resurrection. Divine Mercy is the fruit of the love poured out from the cross by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love that redeemed us from our sins. As St. John Paul II said so beautifully in his encyclical on divine mercy, Dives et Misericordia, mercy is “loves second name.” And so the grace of Easter naturally flows into Divine Mercy Sunday, the eighth day of Easter, the perfect day and the day of eternity according to the early Fathers of the Church.
St. John Paul II once said that, “the whole Octave of Easter is like a single day.” He said that the Easter Octave is “thanksgiving for the goodness God has shown man in the whole Easter mystery.”
The Church teaches that the mercy of God sets us free—that God’s mercy allows us to be freed of our sins; made holy as God is holy, and invites to spend eternity in the presence of the Most Blessed Trinity.
But in today’s Gospel, we encounter St. Thomas the Apostle, a man who had difficulty believing in the mercy of God. St. Thomas heard that the Lord had risen, and that through his mercy—manifested in his Church—all sins could be forgiven. But he told the apostles that until he saw the risen Lord—put his fingers into the nail marks, and put his hand into his side—he would not believe. He doubted that this divine mercy was true.
Each one of us, at times, can identify with St. Thomas. We can doubt whether or not God really loves us, whether or not he has truly forgiven us. It can be difficult to believe in the mercy of God, without seeing its effects. It can be difficult to believe that God forgives us. It can be difficult to believe we can forgive others. And it can be difficult to believe that we will be freed of our sins. Often, like St. Thomas, we will not believe until we have seen.
Pope Benedict XVI wrote that doubt is a common human experience: that each one of us experiences the pangs and difficulties of doubt. Believers doubt that God’s mercy is real, and unbelievers even doubt that the world is really without a God. They want to believe there is a God of mercy, but they just don’t experience him in their lives.
Pope Benedict said that every “believer is choked by the salt water of doubt constantly washed into his mouth by the ocean of uncertainty.” He said that doubt is a “continual temptation.”
If we doubt the mercy of God, we are not alone. An apostle of Jesus Christ doubted too. Pope Benedict says that doubt is the “inescapable dilemma of mankind.”
But today, the good news is that God answers every doubt with mercy.
The Lord appeared to St. Thomas. He made himself manifest, so that St. Thomas would need to doubt no longer, that he could trust in Jesus. And Thomas responded by saying, “my Lord and my God.” In other words, “Jesus, I trust in you.” These are the words St. Faustina places at the heart of devotion to the Divine Mercy, “Jesus, I trust in you” for your are my Lord and my God!
And because of his merciful love, Christ reveals himself to each one of us. We do not see him, and yet, because of his mercy, we can believe. How blessed are we.
Our Holy Father Pope Francis says that, “mercy is doctrine.”
Doctrine comes from the latin word docere, which means “teach.” When Pope Francis says that mercy is doctrine, he means that mercy reveals God. Mercy teaches us that God is present. God’s mercy reveals that we are loved by the Father and that Christ can actually make us holy.
When we experience mercy from other people, God is revealed—because every true act of mercy is rooted in Christ. When we show mercy to other people, God is revealed—because our acts of mercy are rooted in Christ.
And God’s mercy is most manifest to us through the sacrament of confession. When we go to confession, we are given the great gift of God’s mercy. And, over time, if we are attentive, we will notice God’s mercy manifested in our lives. We will notice that mercy “teaches” us by strengthening our consciences, forming us in virtue, and opening our eyes to God’s Providence.
Mercy both teaches, and reveals Jesus Christ. Christ was revealed, by mercy, to St. Thomas, in the upper room. Christ reveals himself, through mercy, in the sacrament of penance. We need only to be attentive—to be turned to the signs and wonders of the Lord—so that in his mercy, we might encounter him and rejoice.
