Divine Mercy Sunday

By Fr. Jack Peterson
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 4/12/07)

Occasionally I find myself thanking God for my sins. Yes, you read that right. To be sure, I detest my sins and I want to root every one of them out of my life forever. Yet I know that because of my sins, I have really come to know Jesus and have been plunged into the depths of His tender, merciful heart. Without those sins, I might not recognize my radical need for God, I might not long in the depths of my soul for His divine mercy. When my heart cries out in pain because I have hurt my beloved and fall on my knees in sorrow, I experience the goodness of God and the power of his love in the most amazing way.
The Church invites us to celebrate the mercy of Jesus this week. Pope John Paul II designated the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday at the canonization of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska on April 30, 2000. Our Lord appeared to her in the 1930s and asked her to be an instrument through which He would spread devotion to His divine mercy. He spoke to her in beautiful ways about how He wishes to bestow this great gift to every corner of the world. He revealed to her a powerful image that has become rather well-known. It displays a gentle, welcoming Christ with rays of light emanating from his heart, symbolizing the blood and water that flowed from his side while He was on the cross. They are a font of healing graces for sinners who turn to Him with trust.
Mercy is God’s love made manifest as He creates us, redeems us and sanctifies us. Mercy is God’s unfathomable, tender care poured out upon every human being from the pierced side of Christ who gave His life for us on the cross. “Mercy,” said Pope John Paul II, “is an indispensable dimension of love; it is, as it were, love’s second name … .” St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Matthew (and countless other saints) were so holy and became such great witnesses of the Good News because they had come to know the profundity and power of Jesus’ divine mercy.
It makes great sense for the Church to proclaim from the housetops today this message of mercy as she commemorates the night when our Risen Lord appeared to the apostles for the first time in the Upper Room and instituted the sacrament of Penance. Jesus said to the Apostles, “‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’” In the sacrament of penance and in the Eucharist, divine mercy is poured into the soul of the believer.
Once we have been wrapped in the mantle of Jesus’ incomprehensible mercy, it is only fitting that we invite others to experience its goodness. Through our baptism, we participate in the Church’s mission to be ambassadors for Christ, to speak warmly and joyfully about this new life and invite others to dive into the depths of divine mercy. Our Lord repeats for us what He said to St. Faustina, “Tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy.”

Fr. Peterson is campus minister at Marymount University in Arlington and director of the Youth Apostles Institute in McLean.

(c) Copyright 2007 by Arlington Catholic Herald