Blessed are those who believe without seeing & God's infinite mercy: Divine Mercy Sunday

Who here is blessed? Jesus tells the disciples in today’s Gospel: Blessed are those who have not seen and believed.  I suspect you believe in Jesus. That’s why you are here. You are blessed and this beatitude is for all of us here! He was speaking a message to the faithful of His Church.        

Today we conclude the Octave of Easter on the Second Sunday known as Divine Mercy Sunday. Easter is an eight-day Feast.   One day is just not enough to celebrate the joy of the Risen Lord.  Last week on Easter Sunday, we heard about the empty tomb. Jesus had risen from the tomb, but the disciples had not yet encountered him. Today we hear about 

Jesus appears twice to the disciples after his resurrection.  In the first encounter the disciples were together on the first day of the week, Sunday, locked away, for “fear of the Jews”.  They just experienced the loss of Jesus who they followed and hoped was the Messiah and had went through a brutal death. Now they probably feared for their own life and Jesus appears to them. Put your self in the place of the disciples and imagine you are at your home with a group of friends mourning a loss of a loved one, it’s late at night, the doors are locked, and the security alarm is set.  All of the sudden your loved one appears out of no where to greet you.  Wouldn’t you be frightened? To help in their fear Jesus greets the disciples twice with, “Peace be with you”. The disciples really needed to hear this.

Jesus appears to the disciples in his glorified body and shows them his hands and feet and feet so they can recognize him.  In the resurrection stories the disciples don’t always recognize the glorified body of Jesus.  By retaining the wounds that He suffered they could recognize Him.  

Jesus then does something amazing: He breathes the Holy Spirit on disciples and sends to do work of extending His mercy through forgiveness of sins telling them: “Who sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained”.  This is reminiscent of God breathing life into Man in the creation story. 

As the resurrected Jesus returns, He gives new life the to the disciples sending them as Apostles to extend his mercy. In this action Jesus institutes the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Thomas was absent when Jesus appeared to the other disciples. He hears about the appearance, but was a typical skeptic as many in Middle-Easterner culture were at the time.  He refused to believe until he could touch Jesus’ wounds himself.   Thomas was much like people in our culture today who rely totally on experiencing it themselves or having scientific proof before they will believe something.

The following week the disciples are gathered again, a good example of early Christians gathering on Sunday, and Jesus appears again with the greeting, “Peace be with you”.  Jesus offers Thomas to touch his wounds, giving him what he needs to come to belief.  Thomas professes his faith: “My Lord and My God”.  We don’t know if Thomas really touched the wounds, but Jesus invited him and offered Thomas the gift of his physical presence to help him believe.  We are given this story to help us believe. 

The Church helps us to believe through our all of our senses by the Liturgy and the sacraments.  Through the Scripture & Gospel we hear at Mass of healings, conversions, and encounters with Christ. We also hear homilies that give meaning of Scripture in our own daily lives it helps us to believe.  But there are many of us like Thomas who need to use more of our senses to affirm our belief.   We need to see, touch, taste, smell, and feel the presence of Jesus.

The sacraments of our Catholic faith provide the grace to help us believe through those other senses. Through the Eucharist we have an intimate encounter with the Lord where we see, taste, touch, and smell.  We can acclaim interiorly at the consecration as the priest elevates the host: "My Lord and my God", just as Thomas did. We also use the sense of human touch through anointing with oil at Baptism, Confirmation, and Anointing of Sick, and laying on of hands in Ordination through the sacrament of Holy Orders. We can feel the comfort of Jesus’ presence, when we come to the chapel and pray, attend Mass, and visit the tabernacle in any church where the Lord is reserved in His Eucharistic presence.

One of the most healing ways we encounter the Lord is through the priest when he extends the Mercy of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation looking into our eyes and saying the words, “I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit”.  It’s fitting today that we hear about the Lord sending the Apostle to extend his mercy through the forgiveness of sins on the second Sunday of Easter is also known as the Sunday of Divine Mercy.   I’d like to share a little background about Divine Mercy.

During the early part of the 20^th century there were many evils going on through expansion of nazism and communism and a deep disrespect for the dignity of life. In the 1930s, Jesus chose a humble Polish nun, St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, to receive private revelations concerning Divine Mercy that were recorded in her Diary.  This private revelation has been approved by the Church and doesn’t reveal anything new beyond what scripture already tells us. It does help to emphasize what has already been revealed. In the case of the Divine Mercy it strengthens our hope in the infinite mercy of God.

In these private revelations there were 14 occasions when Jesus requested that a Feast of Mercy (Divine Mercy Sunday) be observed.  I’d like to share one of those revelations from Jesus with you:

My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and 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. … Let no soul fear to draw near to Me. … 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. (Diary, no. 699)

Blessed Pope John Paul II was very familiar with the message of Divine Mercy from St. Faustina being a native of his homeland of Poland.  Five days after St. Faustina was declared a saint on May 5, 2000, the Vatican decreed that the Second Sunday of Easter would be known as Divine Mercy Sunday

It’s a gift that many of have prepared for this Feast through our Lenten practices going to confession. In receiving the Eucharist on this special day we are able to obtain these graces offered by God of the complete remissions of sins and punishment, but the most exciting message is that Jesus invites to extend his mercy to all as he told St. Faustina, Let no soul fear to draw near to Me.

 

Jesus also appeared to St. Faustina in a vision with his right hand raised in a blessing and his left touching his garment above his heart. Red and white rays emanate from his heart, symbolizing the blood and water that was poured out for our salvation and our sanctification.  The Lord requested this image to be painted with the words, “Jesus, I trust in You”, inscribed under his image, and that it be venerated around the world. Jesus said about this image that: “I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish” (Diary, no. 48) and “By means of this image I will grant many graces to souls” (Diary, no. 742). The image of Divine Mercy has been seen by many of you as it’s hanging on the wall in the confessional. 
 

Our Lord also gave a devotional prayer to St. Faustina with this promise: “Encourage souls to say the chaplet which I have given you” (Diary, no. 1541). “Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. … Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy. I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy” (Diary, no. 687).

On Sunday at 10 am there will be special opportunity to participate in devotions for the Feast of Divine Mercy.  I invite you to spend some time with the Lord in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

Now, I ask again, who here is blessed?   Happy Easter and May God’s Mercy be known and shared with all

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If you would like to explore more about Divine Mercy I’d recommend to look into the Marians of the Immaculate Conception Divine Mercy web site.  If you want to pray the Divine Mercy devotion take it with you on the go and download the Divine Mercy app to your Smartphone.

        

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