Readings: Acts 2:42-47; 1Peter 1:3-9; Jn. 20:19-31
The Divine Mercy Is Our Easter Gift
1. Today, the 2nd Sunday of Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday. Today we celebrate God’s immense mercy, compassion, and love for humankind. St. John Paul ll declared this Sunday as divine Sunday on April 30, 2000, during the Canonization of Faustina Kowalska. Sr. Faustina had a personal apparition of Jesus. According to her, Jesus promised that a person who goes to sacramental confession and receives Holy Communion on Divine Mercy Sunday should receive total forgiveness of all sins and punishment. In his Easter message on April 22, 2001, Pope John Paul ll noted: “Jesus said to St. Faustyna one day: “Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy.” Divine Mercy! The Church receives this Easter gift from Christ and offers it to humanity.”
2. In today’s first reading, we see the community of God’s people bound together in mercy and love. Broken, yes, but full of hope. They enjoyed communal life, sharing, selling property and goods, caring for each one’s needs, and sharing meals. In this community, there was someone who denied Christ, those who ran away from Him, one who was absent from community gathering and prayer, and of course, those who wanted a share in the restored kingdom of Israel. Yet in the Gospel, Christ met them all together and wished them peace. There was no condemnation, judgment, malice, or anger, only love, forgiveness, and mercy. Come, touch my wounds, and be healed. Doubt no longer, and it is I, do not be afraid.
3. In that community, there was healing and forgiveness; faith was restored, and a profession of faith was made: My Lord and my God! This is what mercy means: to have a heart for those who suffer or a heart willing to suffer for others. “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.” (1 Peter 2:21). But that is not all. Christ gave the Spirit to His Apostles and entrusted to them the power to forgive sins. We experience the mercy of God more when we humble ourselves and go to Him in the sacrament of reconciliation and penance. There we meet, face to face with the God of mercy and love, a God of forgiveness, who said through Ezekiel the prophet: “As I live, says the Lord God, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man’s conversion, that he may live.” (33:11).
4. In the Paschal mystery we just celebrated, God appeared to us as a tender-hearted Father who does not give up in the face of his children’s ingratitude and is always ready to forgive. With the mercy of God, we know and are convinced that good will always triumph over evil, that life is stronger than death, and that God’s love is more powerful than our sins. St. Paul stated thus, “Where sin increased, grace overflow all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 5:21-22).
5. Our opening prayer address the Father as “God of everlasting mercy.” And the psalm repeated several times, “His steadfast love endures forever.” All these readings illustrate God’s mercy in action. We are invited to feed the hungry, fight injustice, stand up for the truth and justice, and to know that God’s mercy is everlasting. Suppose we see ourselves as undeserved recipients of God’s mercy and love. In that case, we will understand that, ultimately, mercy results not so much from human effort but from God’s gift to humanity.
6. And so today, we are invited to experience God’s mercy if, in turn, we want to forgive others. That is what we pray for in the Lord’s prayer: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The spiral of hatred and violence, which stains with blood the path of so many individuals and nations the world over, can only be broken and healed by the miracle of forgiveness and mercy. God’s mercy is His way of dealing with the broken world, and humanity is consumed with an insatiable hunger for power. Let us commit our lives to the mercy of God. Let us resolve today to show mercy instead of judging others harshly and irrationally. May we not be so concerned with the wrongdoings of others for, “If you, Lord, mark our sins, Lord, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness, and so you are revered.” (Ps. 130:3). May we treat others as we want to be treated ourselves. Amen.
Rev.
Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP
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