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.”

Easter Beatitude (2nd Sunday Easter C)

The gospel today (Jn 20:19-31) proclaims, as it were, the Easter beatitude: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (v. 29). Clearly this speaks of Christian believers who have not been eyewitnesses to the marvellous event of Jesus’ resurrection but have, nonetheless, demonstrated an unwavering faith in Him as Lord and God.  This speaks about us who, despite our many struggles in life and obstacles to the joy of believing in this increasingly secularized society, continue to live in faith and proclaim the goodness and mercy of God.

Today, the Divine Mercy Sunday is an invitation for us to put our trust in the infinite mercy of our loving God and experience the blessedness that the Lord has promised to those who believe in Him. Let us allow God’s mercy to lead us into the three significant interior movements that the disciples experienced as they encounter the Risen Lord in the gospel account today.

The movement from fear to joy.  The death of the Master on the cross on Good Friday sent the disciples to hiding. Out of fear, they holed up in a room afraid of a possible crack down on the followers of the crucified Messiah. Today’s gospel, however, recounts how Jesus dispels their fear by offering them his peace: “Peace be with you.” Jesus’ appearance throws away the paralysis caused by fear and, once again, enables them to rejoice in freedom. Then Jesus, after overcoming the obstacle of fear, sends them to the mission of proclaiming the gospel. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5:12-16) tells us that the apostles become the adhesive force of the community, gaining respect from people, and attracting a great number of converts.  

What are my fears? Is it fear of rejection? Or of pain? Suffering? Persecution? When we live in fear, we back off and hide in order to protect ourselves from harm.  But the price of maintaining this false security is high. We lose the joy of spontaneity, the freedom to be sent and proclaim the love and mercy of God.  Hence, let us allow the Risen Lord to allay our fears and to lead us to the joyful conviction that God is always on our side.

The movement from guilt to the peace of forgiveness.  Another very likely disposition of the disciples following the horror of Good Friday is guilt. Judas’ guilt has led him to despair; and we can just imagine the angst of Peter for having denied the Lord three times!  Yet, Jesus greets them with the Easter gift of peace.  No mention of their betrayal and cowardice. And not only has he forgiven them, He makes them instruments of God’s forgiveness.  He breathes on them and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (v. 22-23).  Jesus empowers the apostles to overcome the anguish of guilt by forgiveness. Hereafter, the apostles and their successors will be Jesus’ representatives in the world to impart his peace by absolving the sins of those who repent.

What have I done that continues to haunt me and imprisons me? Or what have I failed to do for people I love and for God? Our guilt imprisons us. It can rob us of our peace of mind and continue to torment us. To experience the Easter beatitude, we need to allow the Risen Lord to grant us peace and experience that deep sense of being forgiven. Only when we accept the boundless mercy of God that we can truly live with the Easter happiness.

The movement from doubt to faith.  Another obstacle to Easter faith is doubt. The encounter between Jesus and Thomas in today’s gospel demonstrates how Jesus overcomes doubt. Jesus yields to Thomas’ obstinacy showing the latter the evidence he is looking for as a requirement for his belief. Thomas goes down in history as the doubting apostle; yet when we come to think of it, his skepticism saves us from our own doubts. Thomas has disproved any theories that suggest the resurrection as mere hallucination on the part of the apostles. He has seen the Risen Lord in his own eyes in the very terms he demanded. Hence, his proclamation of faith, “My Lord and my God!” can also be ours.  

Does the joy of believing manifest in my life? The societies we find ourselves in are subscribing more and more to secular philosophies which belittle and ignore the truth of our Christian faith. Many times, unawares we allow this worldview to be our own too as we face life and make decisions. This slowly jeopardizes our joyful witnessing to our faith. Like Thomas, let us allow the Risen Lord to come to us and overcome our lack of faith.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us come to Jesus, bringing with us our fears, our guilt, and our lack of faith but trusting in the transforming power of his mercy. Let us allow his infinite mercy to open the locked doors of our hiding place and invite us to come out into the open with joy instead of fear, with peace instead of guilt, with faith instead of unbelief.