Feast of Divine Mercy, 2nd Sunday of Easter: 4-3-16
Peace be with You!
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever”, so begins the Psalm we sang today in our celebration of the Second Sunday of Easter, known also as Divine Mercy Sunday. This feast of Divine Mercy was given to the Church by the great St. John Paul II, in order that we might drink more fully of and live the richness of Divine Mercy in our lives.
The message of Divine Mercy was conveyed to St. Faustina Kowalska in the 1930’s, by none other than he who is the face of Divine Mercy Itself, Jesus Christ, in a series of visions which she recorded in her personal diary and have since been affirmed as legitimate by the Church. In one of her encounters with Our Lord, Sr. Faustina recorded him as saying: “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.” What is the mercy of God, what is it that we must be turning towards? My friends, mercy is but the Love that is God looking upon the sinner. As St. John Paul II said, ‘it is love’s second name.’ Today, in a most clear and beautiful way, the message of Divine Mercy comes to us through our readings, which I would summarize in two points.
Firstly, in our second reading for today, from the beginning of the book of Revelation, we find John recording the words our Lord speaks to him in his initial vision: “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. “ These are words of love, meant to instill within us a sense of peace and assurance. We may liken them to the promise of a spouse, who vows to remain faithfully and lovingly present, regardless of the circumstances. Secondly, just as he did to His disciples in our Gospel reading, our Lord sends us forth on mission: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And just how has the Father sent forth His only Begotten Son? He sent Him forth in Love, to the ill and the outcast, to those who had little reason to hope! My friends, our Lord sends us forth as His merciful presence in the world as we see in the lives of the disciples recorded in Acts, to be a source of healing for a very broken world. To be sure, this task is an enormous one! Violence and sickness of every kind pervade our world, but my friends, we need not fear. We need only to keep one prayer upon our lips and proclaim it with conviction, “Jesus, I trust in you!”.
Your Servant in Christ,
Tony
Tony Crescio is the founder of FRESHImage Ministries. He holds an MTS from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a PhD candidate in Christian Theology at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on the intersection between moral and sacramental theology. His dissertation is entitled, Presencing the Divine: Augustine, the Eucharist and the Ethics of Exemplarity.
Tony’s academic publications can be found here.