DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

Homily given by Fr. Dennis Koliński, SJC

St. Peter’s Church in Volo

30 March 2008  

One week ago, during the great Pascal Mystery we experienced the depth of Christ’s love. He not only took on our lowly human nature but even gave Himself over willingly to brutal torture and a humiliating death on a cross. He did all of this out of His infinite love for us—a love so great that He was willing to do anything, so that we could share in His divine life.

This expression of Christ’s infinite love was also an expression of His infinite mercy. Knowing our human inclination toward sin, He knew that we could not achieve the union with Him for which we were destined, unless He helped us. So, as He hung dying upon the cross, Jesus not only opened the door to salvation, which had been sealed since the sin of Adam, but also poured out His Divine Mercy for the forgiveness of our sins when His side was opened up by a lance.

Today, we celebrate that outpouring of God’s mercy in a very special way because on this first Sunday after Easter, in the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Sr. Faustyna, the apostle of Divine Mercy and declared that this Sunday would now be known as “Divine Mercy Sunday.” This new feast day has its origin in a series of private revelations made by Christ to St. Faustyna in the 1930s. On numerous occasions during His appearances to her, Christ asked that the Sunday after Easter be dedicated as a feast to His Divine Mercy. He told Faustyna, “This Feast emerged from the very depths of My mercy,”[1] which “will be open to all.” “My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.”[2]

Today’s Gospel speaks of that mercy. What is most amazing about it is that the Church chose the readings for this Sunday decades before the official declaration of this day as the Feast of Divine Mercy. It was as if the Church was preparing us for this day and we can only look with wonder at how the Holy Spirit works within His Church.

If we look at today’s Responsorial Psalm and Gospel together they show us that our Lord is not a God of vengeance, as many have thought through the ages, but a God of mercy in both the Old and the New Covenant—that means, for all time. From Psalm 118 we heard: “Let the house of Israel say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’ Let the house of Aaron say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’ Let those who fear the Lord say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’”[3] Then, in the Gospel we heard about that first evening after the Resurrection when Christ suddenly stood amongst the Apostles even though they were shut in behind locked doors. He showed them the wounds in his hands and side—the eternal marks of His mercy.

The image that St. John gave of the appearance of Christ to the Apostles is remarkably similar to the description that Faustyna gave us of how Christ appeared to her. Just as with the Apostles, Jesus made a point of showing St. Faustyna his sacred wounds—the channels through which His Divine Mercy would flow upon mankind. In particular, He pointed out the wound in His side to both the Apostles and Faustyna because it was there that the Roman soldier pierced Him with a lance. And as it opened up His heart, blood and water flowed out.[4]

Christ told St. Faustyna that the two rays which she saw coming from His side represented the blood and water. He said: “The pale ray stands for 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.” Therefore, whenever we look at the painting of Divine Mercy, we should see a merciful fountain of grace flowing from the pierced Heart of Christ.

We know that when Jesus appeared that first time to the Apostles, Thomas was not present and when the others told Him that they had seen the Lord, he skeptically said that he would believe only if he could place his fingers in Christ’s wounds. So, the following week, when Christ appeared to them again, He took Thomas to task because of his unbelief, saying: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”[5]

Christ wanted to emphasize this point for us when he told Faustyna to paint an image of Him with the inscription: “Jesus, I trust in You.” He wanted us to always trust in His love and recognize that His mercy is greater than all of our sins—even the worst of them. That is why He gave that great sacrament of His mercy—the sacrament of Confession. All that we have to do is place our complete trust in Him. Thomas believed only when he saw Christ. We are the ones who must believe, even though we “have not seen.”[6]