Divine Mercy Sunday, 2022

A story was told of a man who died and went to Hell. While in Hell, he decided to review his life on earth to ascertain that he really deserved to be in Hell. In his retrospections, he consoled himself for being in Hell because he began to enumerate his sins to himself and his conclusion was that Hell was where he belonged, on account of his wrong doings on earth. However, he lifted up his gaze, and to his utmost surprise, he saw his pastor/parish priest in Hell. In his amazement he yelled out, “Father, are you also here in Hell?” And Father motioned to him to keep quiet while pointing ahead of him saying, “look, the bishop is over there”!

Hope of Salvation is the focus of Divine Mercy Sunday, not candidacy for Hell! Just look at it yourselves: “time” has changed; and with it, the power of sin!

Our gospel speaks of the “First Day of the Week”. “First” has the connotation of beginning and novelty. “Day” begins with the rising of the sun and the dissipation of darkness. To have the “first” and “day” together is to suggest that Jesus wants to direct our attention from the past to the present. The past which gave importance to Jewish Sabbath with its restrictions and limitations, ought to give up its place to something new and different, something that has a new meaning because of Jesus, a new definition of reality based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, the book of Genesis starts with the creation of light in order to manifest day. Light and day are inseparable, just as light’s principal job is to dispel darkness. When, according to the book of Genesis, light was created and darkness vanquished, the “first day” came into effect. In other words, light and day made possible the appearance of the  “first day.” First of creation and First of existence. Light and day are the possibility for the manifestation of other created things.

Intrinsic to the action of creation and creativity is the presence of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit that hovered over the formless void, the principle of order and organization. On the First Day of the Week, the day that begins every week and gives meaning to day and week, Jesus offers the Holy Spirit to his disciples to dynamize in them the principle of regeneration and renewal – “receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says to his disciples. The Holy Spirit breathed on the disciples by Jesus makes human nature capable of more than what it could do in the past. It was not just a statement of fact, but an action – the resurrected Christ never needed the door opened for him, he walked through looked doors. The resurrected body of Jesus Christ was still palpable when touched by Thomas. The Holy Spirit given by the Resurrected Christ is empowerment and renovation of the past into the new – a spiritualized-nature and person.

“Blessed are those who have not seen yet believe” moves the reality of faith away from physical evidence to personal experience of the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians, as well as one’s personal testimonies to the blessings received from God. An undeniable gift we have all received is that of the forgiveness of sins. We continue to enjoy this forgiveness through the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Holy Spirit that makes the forgiveness of sins possible is what gives this Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday, its importance and significance. Jesus invites us all to extend his mercy, understood as forgiveness, to one another, just as he forgave us through his Cross and Resurrection. This mercy of God and forgiveness needs missionaries to proclaim and live it out.

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you” provides us with the message of today – forgiveness of sins: “forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us,” we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. “Peace be with you” is the guarantee that what was considered destroyed and dead is up and about again. The concept of “shalom” or “peace” is that which hides behind it “wholeness” and “regeneration”. The person of Jesus and his post-resurrection appearances underscore the newness which comes out of that which was thought past and forgotten. It is the evidence of the resilience of life over death and tragedy. “Peace be with you” speaks to the presence of Jesus Christ among his pilgrim people. “Peace be with you” is the foundation of a new community based on the power of the Resurrection, on “the First Day of the Week.” Today, “The First Day of the Week” is the beginning of the Church, a community of the resurrection.

Behind and before every birth are invisible activities – love, sacrifice, marriage, etc. Before and hidden in the life and activities of Jesus Christ is the incubation of a new community, the Church of the First Day of the Week. This community, visibly haunted by fear of the Jews, who killed the Christ and could kill his disciples, was empowered by the Holy Spirit of the resurrected Christ. The Church of the Acts of the Apostles, which Luke narrates in the first reading of today, explains the power of the resurrection and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in Christians. The community of the Acts of the Apostles was of “one heart and one soul”; it was faithful to prayers and the breaking of the bread; it was a Eucharistic Church! Where the Holy Spirit is, there is the Church, there is regeneration, and there is power!

If the Spirit of the Resurrection founded a Eucharistic Church, the same Spirit sustains the Church in fidelity to the teachings of Jesus Christ, as testified to by our first reading. But the hope of this nascent Church was in the future – the Kingdom of Heaven. According to the second reading of today, the destiny of every Christian is reserved and preserved in Heaven. Immortality is the gift of the Resurrected Christ to all who believe in him. Because of what lay in the future, Jesus underwent the cross; because of what lies in the future, the Holy Spirit, here and now, helps Christians to be courageous before persecutions and suffering. The power to forgive persecutors of Christians and Christianity comes from the Spirit of the Resurrection.

Yes, you and I are children of the Resurrection and agents of forgiveness and protagonists of Divine Mercy. Let us go into the whole world proclaiming the mercy of God to us, and his promised mercy to the whole world. Yes, hope of salvation, despite sin!

 Assignment for the Week:

Could you pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet today?