GOD OF EVERLASTING MERCY.
April 16, 2023
Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy) – A.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” 1 Pt 1:3
An Ecuadorian proverb says: “The strong forgive, the weak
remember.” And a German proverb adds: “God forgives sinners, otherwise His
heaven would be empty.”
God's mercy surpasses our human weaknesses and even
overtakes our wickedness. Though he abhors sin, God loves the sinners and opens
him an ever-renewed opportunity to conversion. Thus the affirmation of Pope
Francis, “The name of God is mercy.”
In the very mystery of the Lord's Resurrection, what hits
much our attention is how he forgives. Even while dying on the Cross, the Lord
Jesus asked his Father to forgive those who put him to death: “Father, forgive
them, for they do not know what they are doing” Luke 23:34. Once he rose from
the dead, he did not accuse his disciples one for betraying him, another one
for denying him, and others for abandoning him. Rather, he shows himself to
them, comforts them, gives them peace, and more especially, makes them
missionaries and instruments of peace and mercy.
Today, we are called to meet the Risen Lord in the gathering
of our Sunday congregation. Most particularly, to encounter him when he
forgives and gives himself in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy
Eucharist.
God's mercy is beyond limits. That is what we celebrate
today, Sunday of Divine Mercy. It was an institution of Pope St. John Paul II.
It is said that the most comprehensive revelation about this feast can be found
in the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, entry 699:
“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.” And this feast fits well with today's liturgy, where all
speaks of the tender compassion and mercy of God revealed in the Risen Lord.
The first and greatest gift of the Risen Lord to his
disciples is peace. It is a peace that not only set them in comfort to profess
him as Lord and Savior, taking away from them all fear, but also a peace that
comes to reconcile them to God and bring them the inner and deeper forgiveness.
We all need to be at peace with ourselves, at peace with others, and mostly at
peace with God. Mercy contributes in the instauration of that peace.
While celebrating today God's merciful love, the first
reading forecasts the image of the first Christian community, a community of
common accord, common, purpose, and common faith. There, we are shown the rise
of perfect peace. For, where there is communion and mutual support and
assistance to the need of each one, there peace is found, and mercy reigns. The
author of the Acts emphasizes one of the greatest values of the first
community: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they
would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according
to each one’s need.”
Our today's communities lack peace, and people are living
mercilessly because we have no sense of communal and mutual support.
Indifference, individualism, self-satisfaction, hedonism... these are what
people value much nowadays. To reach the perfect image of the children of God
we received in our Baptism, we should do away with these modern sins.
God wants us new, says St. Peter, in the second reading. For
that, "in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." The Resurrection is our
ransom. Through it, we are forgiven and saved. As such, our lives should
reflect our new identity and lead others to experience Christ the Risen Lord.
The Gospel, through the scene of the apparition of the Lord
to his disciples and the confession of Thomas, tells us that the first
initiative is always from God. He is the one who brings doubtful people to
faith and forgives them for their unbelief.
In one or another way, each one of us stands as a Thomas, an
empiricist person who needs tangible and touchable signs before believing. We
all want to put our fingers... see with our own eyes, and feel before
accepting. The Lord, however, comes to remind us of the predominance of faith
on fact. Faith must always come first.
The Catechism says: “The disciple of Christ must not only
keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to
it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess Christ before
men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which
the Church never lacks." Service of and witness to the faith are necessary
for salvation: "So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will
acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before
men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."” CCC 1816
Today, more than ever, let us open our hearts to the mercy of God, who on the cross opened his to let spring forth the living source of purification, the water and blood shed for our salvation.
Comments
Post a Comment