Door of God's Mercy (Divine Mercy Sunday)

In 2016, the whole of Catholic Church celebrated the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy officially pronounced by Pope Francis by way of his letter Misericordiae Vultus (The Face of Mercy). That year all the faithful were exhorted to contemplate the mystery of God’s mercy and were all invited to experience the mercy of God and dared to become merciful just as the Father is merciful (Lk 6:36).

One memorable feature of the Year of Mercy was the making of pilgrimages which included entering through the Holy Door of Mercy.  Entering through the door of mercy signified for many their repentant resolve to be right back in the merciful embrace of our Father like the prodigal son who mustered his courage, after wandering away in sin, to go back to his loving father to be lovingly embraced by him. 

The celebration of the Divine Mercy Sunday today reminds us again of God’s invitation for us to enter through the door of his mercy as we heed the message of St. Faustina Kowalska who relayed God’s revelation for us: “He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice.” Between God’s mercy and His justice, let us then choose to receive the unmerited gift of God’s infinite mercy thereby redeeming us from our sins instead of facing God’s justice which we greatly deserved.    

                                                              How do we choose God’s mercy that we may be spared of His justice?

Entrusting our misery to the heart of Jesus. Mercy comes from the Latin word “misericordia.” This is a combination of two words: The Latin “miseriae” meaning misery and the Latin “cor” or “cordis” meaning heart. In this we have a glimpse of the nature of God’s mercy—it is His heart extending into our human misery to redeem it.

When we beg for God’s mercy, we are lifting up to his loving heart all our suffering brought about by our sins. We beg because we do not deserve His attention. Our misery is our own undoing. We deserve to suffer as consequence of our sins. Yet God, a loving Father “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), cannot stand to leave us alone in our misery. So, He sent his Son Jesus Christ who took upon himself all our guilt and offer himself as a sacrifice for us all. Jesus is the face of the Father’s mercy.  When we contemplate the sacred heart of Jesus, we see the loving heart of God drawing unto itself our human misery in order to redeem it. 

Let us, then, lift our misery, as we celebrate today the Divine Mercy Sunday, to the sacred heart of Jesus with total trust in God’s mercy. We have to acknowledge our utter need for God’s mercy.  We cannot save ourselves from our human misery.  We need God’s mercy to set us free.  We are not redeemed by our meritorious efforts but by the unmerited gift of unconditional love expressed by God’s infinite mercy.  To the most merciful heart of Jesus we pray: “Jesus, I trust in you.”

Celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The gospel reading today (Jn 20: 19-31) reveals the mercy of God as the Risen Lord confronted his fearful disciples not with reproach but with the greeting of peace. Their hearts had been troubled by fear or even by guilt for abandoning the Lord. Hence, mercifully He gave them his peace turning their fears into joy. But more significantly, this encounter with the Risen Lord empowered the Apostles to bring God’s mercy into this sinful world as He said to them: “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”   Then He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (v.21-23). This, then, is the institution of the Sacrament of Reconciliation---the sacrament of God’s mercy.  By this sacrament, the Church fulfils the mission for which she is sent—to proclaim to the world the forgiveness of sins by the grace of the divine mercy. 

We choose to pass through the door of God’s mercy every time we celebrate the sacrament of penance and reconciliation with a humble and contrite heart. Through the sacrament, we experience the joy of being forgiven.  St. Faustina revealed Jesus’ message concerning confession: When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy (Diary, 1602).

Becoming merciful as the Father.  We glimpse mercy in action from the Acts of the Apostles. We see the early Christians so filled with the Holy Spirit that "no one claimed any of his possessions as his own." They instead "distributed to each according to his need" (Acts 2:44-45). Mercy in action involves the selfless effort to provide those who are in need with their share of the world's blessings.  Again, in Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis exhorts: “It is my humble desire that, during this Jubilee, the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. It will be a way to reawaken our conscience… to enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel” (MV, 16). 

This invitation is, again, a reminder of one of the many things Jesus demanded from St. Faustina: "I demand from you deeds of mercy... You are to show deeds of mercy to your neighbours always and everywhere."

Let us become merciful as the Father is merciful. We who have experienced the unmerited gift of God’s mercy have to allow the same grace to be channelled through us. Let us reach out to those who are in misery. By our works of mercy, both corporal and spiritual, we become the heart of Jesus today inviting all within our reach to join us in passing through the door of God’s mercy.

We pray: “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Amen.”