DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

April 19, 2009

The days after Easter are the best time of year to contemplate Christ in his risen glory, with his passion and death behind him. Now, although the marks of the wounds inflicted on him would remain, the spit and dust and blood that had covered his face and body on Good Friday are gone.

Radiant in his divine majesty, he speaks words that dispel fear and instill peace and joy: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive for evermore” (Rev 1:17:18).

These are days to give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endures forever (Psalm 117:1). In the presence of the risen Lord, we see the fulfillment of the words of the Song of Songs of the Old Testament that love is stronger than death (cf. 8:6). It was out of love that he bore the weight of our sins on the cross, and out of love that he makes himself known in his risen glory.

And what does the risen Lord bring us, having already given us his body and blood on the cross? The Gospel of the Second Sunday of Easter tells us of the wonderful things the Lord did on the day of his resurrection. We are told that “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad to see the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you,' and then he breathed on them, and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained'" (Jn 20, 19-23).

The Lord, then, bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins. It is clear that the Lord desires to forgive our sins, and more than that, he desires that we know of his desire! He wants us to know him as a forgiving, merciful Lord, and approach him without fear or hesitation.

To communicate this message anew to the people of our times, the Lord chose a lowly daughter of Poland, Saint Faustina Kowalska, to be his messenger. Jesus revealed himself to her in a way that enabled her to see two rays of light emanating from his body, one red, and the other white.

According to what Saint Faustina later recorded in her diary (299), the Lord himself explained to her: "I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy.  That vessel is this image with the signature: “Jesus, I trust in You”. (Diary 327) “The two rays denote Blood and Water.  The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous.  The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls.  These two rays issued forth from the very depths of my tender mercy when my agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the cross. …Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.” (Diary 299)

As Saint Faustina also recorded (Diary, 699), the Lord instructed her, “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. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened.”

Rightly, then, does the Church call this Sunday Divine Mercy Sunday. The Image of The Divine Mercy, which Our Lord requested to be solemnly blessed and venerated on this day, will be on display in many of our churches on Divine Mercy Sunday.  Pope John Paul II said that the image portrays the Risen Jesus Christ bringing Mercy to the whole world.  Our Lord said “I want the image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, and I want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it”.  “I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish”. (Diary 341, 48) 

About the feast day, Saint Faustina reported also that Jesus had said to her, “On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened.  Let no soul fear to draw near to me, even though its sins be as scarlet....  mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of my mercy”.  (Diary 699)

Divine Mercy Sunday is a wonderful day to enter church and venerate the image of Our Lord of Divine Mercy. Some parish churches will pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at 3 p.m., the time reported in the Gospels as the time of Christ’s death on the cross.

Even those who cannot venerate the image or participate in the chaplet can, nonetheless, know the special meaning of this day in the Church’s year of worship, remember our Lord’s mercy, and turn to him in complete trust, asking from him the grace of a new purification, a new beginning, and a new innocence.

Divine Mercy Sunday is a day to plunge into the infinite ocean of his mercy. He waits for all who come to him, ready to forgive and embrace them.

Jesus, I trust in you!

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 11-Jan-2010 8:22 sitemap