“But Still Believe” by Rev. Paul Berghout

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