Second Sunday of Easter
Sunday of Divine Mercy
Piety
Thus, they even carried the sick out
into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at
least his shadow might fall on one or another of them. A large number of people
from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick
and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.
Acts 5:15-16
I, John, your brother, who share with
you the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus, found myself
on the island called Patmos because I proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony
to Jesus. I was caught up in spirit on the Lord’s Day and heard behind me a
voice as loud as a trumpet, which said, “Write on a scroll what you see.” Revelation 1:9-11a
You believe in me, Thomas, because you
have seen me, says the Lord; blessed are those who have not seen me, but still,
believe! John 20:29
Study
Lamentations 3:19 says “His mercies
begin afresh each day.” God gives you a fresh start each day.
Mercy—God’s gift-of-self within the
Trinity to his gift-of-self to us.
Mercy is a gift given and to be
shared.
A man named Charles was lying in a
hospital bed near death. Anyone who knew Charles would tell you he was not a
nice man. He drank too much; he was verbally abusive to his wife and children.
However, he did ask for a Chaplain. So, the nursing staff was a little
surprised when Charles asked to speak to a Chaplain. Charles asked the chaplain
to pray for him. “What do you want to
say to God?" the Chaplain asked. "Tell God that I am sorry for the
way my life has turned out,” Charles said. “Tell him that I am sorry for the way
I treated my wife and kids and that I've always loved them." "Sure, I
can do that,” the chaplain said.
“Is there anything else?"
“Yes,” Charles said, “Tell God that I
know I have no right to ask this -- but, I would like to be able to live with
him. "
The source of mercy are the wounds of
Christ.
We can even look at the world through
these wounds.
Saint Teresa of Avila said once about
a suicide, “between the bridge and the river there was time and space enough
for the mercy of God.”
Receiving mercy helps us to give up
things that are not good for us.
Mystical hope is our ability to consciously
abide in “the Mercy” of God. Hope fills us with the strength to stay present,
to abide in the flow of the Mercy no matter what outer storms assail us.
It is entered always and only through
surrender; that is, through the willingness to let go of everything we are
presently clinging to.
And yet when we enter it, it enters us
and fills us with its own life—a quiet strength beyond anything we have ever
known.
Receiving mercy means having the image
of Divine Mercy with you and in your homes
St. Faustina burned the first version
of her diary however, she was ordered to write it again, however, her spiritual
director was able to remember some of the messages that were lost.
“When chastisements for sins come upon
the world and your own country will experience utter degradation, the only
refuge will be trust in My mercy. I will protect the cities and homes in which
the Divine Mercy Image is found; I will protect the persons who will venerate
this Image. The only refuge will be
trust in My Mercy. . .
Let everyone procure for their home
this Image because there will yet come trials.
And those homes, and entire families, and every one individual who will
hold this image of mercy in deep reverence, I will preserve from every sort of
misfortune. The time will come when all
those who do so will give witness to the miraculous efficacy and the special
protection of mercy flowing from this image.”
We can look at the world through the
wounds—
So, we can show mercy to others and
even to places--
Look at the Volcán San Miguel y Cerro
Mico Peinado through the wounds of Christ; look at Nicaragua through the wounds
of Christ.
Hear your husband’s or wife’s voice
through the wounds of Christ; Respond to some broken, bleeding part of the
world through the wounds of Christ and pay attention to how the experience of
touching wounds changes you.
Frances Caryll Houselander was a
Catholic mystic in the 1940s. She was riding in a London subway and she saw
Christ “in everyone one of them.
Christ was living in them, dying in
them, rejoicing in them, sorrowing in them—and rising in them. She said: I came
out into the street and walked for a long time in the crowds. It was the same
here, on every side, in every passer-by, everywhere—Christ.
Action
Jesus did not just tell people about
the forgiveness of sins, he told them in a performative utterance, “Your sins
are forgiven” and in John 20:23, Jesus gives that power to just his apostles.
Absolution brings peace. This offering
of peace “be with you” is strangely powerful for several reasons. The world
around them is not peaceful. Enemies want them dead. Christ’s mysterious peace
evokes something beyond the normal sense of that word.
That’s Divine Mercy, Amen
