Second Sunday of Easter: Sunday of Divine Mercy
This is the story of Maria Faustina Kowalska, the nun to whom we owe the Divine Mercy Devotion. She lived for a brief 33 years. That is the same number of years we assume Jesus lived. Born in Głogoweic, Poland, in1905, she first felt the call to become a religious at the age of 7. Her parents refused her because of her young age. Then at 16, after a social dance at a park, she literally ran away from home to go to Warsaw. She knocked at the doors of many convents but no place would accept her. One of them even said, “We do not accept maids here!” When the mother superior of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy did receive her, she did not have the money to pay for her religious habit. She then worked as a housemaid to make the money she needed. After her religious profession, and then as a nun, she was often assigned menial tasks, sometimes as a cook and other times as a gardener in the convents. It was during these times that Christ was beginning to reveal himself to her as ‘Divine Mercy.’ When she first shared of her apparitions, visions, and conversations with her companions, nobody believed her. On the contrary, she was asked to submit herself to psychological tests. Fortunately, when she was found to be of sound mind, her confessor began to give credibility to her mystical experience. Soon thereafter, however, she was stuck with illness (most probably tuberculosis), and on Oct 5, 1938, she was gone! Before her death, though, she had predicted a terrible war. Not one, but two World Wars happened soon after. Her diary, which she kept throughout these years, has now become legendary. It has also become the prayer of the millions of people who pray the chaplet of Divine Mercy.
In the year 2000, on the second Sunday of Easter, Pope John Paul II canonized Sr. Faustina Kowalska. On that day, John Paul II announced that “from now on throughout the Church this Sunday will be called “Divine Mercy Sunday.” Hence today we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.
Today, I would like to reflect with you on Divine Mercy. Since John Paul II is the one who declared this Divine Mercy Sunday, I will be relying more on his writings than on the work of Sr. Faustina. Here are my three points.
Jesus, the Face of God’s Mercy
In 1980, John Paul wrote an encyclical titled “Rich in Mercy.” The message of Sr. Faustina was probably the rationale behind this encyclical. John Paul II begins his encyclical by saying that one of the central aspects of our faith is not only that Jesus was the Son of God, but that Jesus also revealed God. Thus, the very first words of John Paul’s encyclical are, “It is “God who is rich in mercy” whom Jesus has revealed to us as Father.” Since Divine Mercy is celebrated on the second Sunday of Easter, John Paul connects the entire events of Holy Week to God’s mercy. He says, “God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” (RM, 1)
The mercy of God is not merely a concept. John Paul says that Jesus’ message of mercy preserved a particular divine-human dimension (RM, 3). In other words, Jesus becoming human is itself an act of God’s mercy. And then we have Jesus’ relationship with humanity. For John Paul II, Jesus is the face of God’s Mercy. In his suffering and his relationship with the unfortunate and sinners, Jesus incarnates the God who is “rich in mercy.” Perhaps now we understand the rationale behind Jesus’ ministry with tax collectors and sinners. Perhaps now we can understand why he shielded the adulterous woman, defended the poor widow who put two pennies in the money box, allowed the sinful woman to wash his feet with her tears, and looked at Peter lovingly after his denial.
What does this mean for us? This means that we can always count on God’s mercy in Jesus Christ.
God’s Mercy versus God’s Justice
John Paul then goes on to solve the complex conundrum of the balance between God’s mercy and God’s Justice. For many people, one of the greatest blocks to understanding God’s unconditional love and mercy is the question of God’s justice. If God is indeed all mercy, then, is there no retribution? Does not justice require reckoning? Surprisingly, John Paul derives his answer from the Old Testament, which we often think presents a sterner image of God. He says, “Even the Old Testament teaches that although justice is an authentic virtue in man and signifies the transcendent perfection of God, nevertheless, love is “greater” than justice; greater in the sense that it is primary and fundamental.” (RM, 4) “Love conditions justice and justice serves love,” says John Paul. The primacy and superiority of love is a mark of the whole revelation – and is revealed precisely through mercy. John Paul goes on to strengthen his insight by giving the illustration of the prodigal son in the New Testament. Even though the prodigal son squanders his dignity as the son, the father’s mercy restores him his dignity as a son. It is this kind of mercy that is revealed on the cross and through the resurrection. The cross and the resurrection of Jesus, John Paul says, shows that love is more powerful than death, and more powerful than sin.
What does this mean for us? This means that God’s mercy always triumphs. Against every other heavenly virtue, against every other human failing, God’s mercy always triumphs! Let us put all our confidence in God’s mercy.
Mercy is a Two-way Street
John Paul calls the mission of mercy the greatest task of the church. He says, “The church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy” (RM 13). Jesus himself entrusted this mission to the Church when he said to his disciples, As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then he breathed the Holy Spirit on them saying, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20:21-23). This is the reason that John Paul sees the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation as the place when people can experience mercy is a unique way, that is, “the love which is more powerful than sin.” He says, “The church must consider it one of her principal duties to proclaim and to introduce into life the mystery of mercy revealed in Jesus Christ” (RM, 14). In John Paul’s vision, the church must also practice mercy and appeal for God’s mercy.
When John Paul says that mercy is the greatest task of the Church, he was not merely talking about the institutional church, but also about every Christian. Mercy is our mission too. It is also consistent with Sr. Faustina’s Divine Mercy devotion. In her recording of her visions. Jesus said to her: “Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for me. You are to show mercy to our neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to absolve yourself from it” (Diary 742).
What does this mean for us? This mean that the Divine Mercy devotion is not merely a devotion. It is a way of life. It means that just as we receive God’s mercy, we must also share God’s mercy. It is one thing to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet on this feast day. But after we have prayed for God’s mercy, we must ourselves be merciful in the same way that God is merciful. The danger is that after receiving the unlimited mercy of God, we might put a limit on the mercy that we show to others.
May this celebration of the Eucharist be for an experience of God’s rich and unending mercy. May it also be our strength as we show this very mercy to others. Amen.
Fr. Satish Joseph