Diving Mercy: Jesus, I trust in You - Deacon Ron's Homily for Divine Mercy Sunday, April 3, 2016

Today concludes the Octave of Easter and is 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. Today we hear about Jesus appearing to the disciples after his resurrection.

In the first encounter the disciples were together on the first day of the week in a locked room, for “fear of the Jews”.  They all knew Jesus suffered a brutal death and feared that they may suffer the same fate.  When Jesus appears to them it must have been frightening. Put your self in the place of the disciples.  Imagine if one of your friends has just died and you were at your home mourning their loss with a group of friends. It’s late at night, the doors are locked, and the security alarm is set.  All of the sudden your friend appears in your room live in the flesh.  Wouldn’t you be frightened?

Jesus must have sensed the disciples fear and so he greets them with, “Peace be with you”.  THEY REALLY NEEDED TO HEAR THIS. Jesus shows them his hands and feet and feet so they’ll believe it’s him. Jesus then offers his peace a second time. He does something truly amazing: He breathes the Holy Spirit on the disciples and gives them the power to forgive sins.  Jesus then sends his disciples on a mission to extend his mercy. In this action Jesus institutes the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Today we have the great gifts of encountering Jesus through the sacraments of reconciliation and Eucharist.  But like Thomas there are some who don’t yet believe that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist and that he can forgive all of our sins.  The second Sunday of Easter was declared Divine Mercy Sunday to help spread the message of how we can be reconciled to Jesus by the grace of sacraments. 

Saint John Paul II declared on April 30 of 2000 that the second Sunday of Easter to be known as Divine Mercy Sunday at the canonization ceremony of St. Faustina Kawalksa.  St. Faustina was a humble Polish nun who lived during the early part of the 20^th century. There were many evils at that time due to the rise of Nazism and Communism.  Jesus chose this humble Polish nun to His receive private revelations from him concerning Divine Mercy to help combat these evils. The Church approves this revelation and there’s nothing in this revelation beyond what scripture tells us in the Divine Mercy revelation. It helps us to emphasize the Gospel message that God is infinitely merciful and that we are called to offer mercy to others. It also helps to emphasize the special graces we receive through the sacrament of reconciliation and Eucharist.

            In the private revelations to St. Faustina, Jesus requested that on the second Sunday of Easter that the Feast of Mercy was to be observed.    On this Feast those who go

to confession and receive the Eucharist will receive the same graces they their Baptism. The Lord Jesus also revealed the image of Divine Mercy to St. Faustina and instructed her to have it painted. In the image Jesus has 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.  The words, “Jesus, I trust in You”, is inscribed under his image.  Jesus asked for this image be venerated around the world and said:

“I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish” (Diary, no. 48). 

The Divine Mercy Image is normally found in the chapel, but today we have it displayed in the Narthex.  We also have Holy Cards available for you to take as you exit the center doors of the Narthex. It has the image of Divine Mercy on the front and instructions on the back on how to pray Divine Mercy chaplet using the Rosary.

If you participate in a Divine Mercy service today and perform prescribed actions the Church provides the opportunity to receive a plenary indulgence.  An indulgence is obtained through the Church that provides the remission of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven which can be applied to your self or to those who have died.  If your interested in attending a Divine Mercy service our Connected in the Spirit sister parish,  Our Lady of the Greenwood, is having a celebration at 2 pm.  If you’d like to learn more about Divine Mercy we are currently having an Adult Faith Formation series on Wednesday evenings or go to divinemercy.org

The Feast of Divine Mercy reminds us of the infinite mercy of God, and our call to be merciful to others.  A good way to help us practice mercy is to look at the Divine Mercy image daily.  The image shows the blessing and mercy Jesus extends to us.  We can also think of the image as a mirror.  We can look into it and read the words, Jesus I trust in you, and ask ourselves: Are we being the Divine Mercy image we see to others in our lives?  Do we trust in Jesus, bringing others to trust in His Mercy?