Bulletin Article: Divine Mercy 02E-C

   Divine Mercy Sunday was placed on the universal calendar by Pope John Paul II in 2001 on the occasion of the canonization of the Divine Mercy visionary, Sr. Faustina Kowalska. This feast, falling on the ‘octave day’ of Easter intends to draw the Church into contemplation of God’s mercy in light of the Risen Lord. We spent the 40 days of Lent tempering our desires and correcting our faults in order to welcome the grace of God’s forgiveness through the wood of the cross. Now, in the Easter season, we recognize and celebrate the fullness of Divine Mercy revealed in the mystery of our Lord’s final triumph over sin and death. If we have the attitude that penance, confession, self-denial, and the desire for divine forgiveness are reserved for the season of Lent, then we have misunderstood the “reason for the [Easter] season”. Easter is the dawning of a new age of reconciliation with God.
   The Gospel this weekend demonstrates the depth of God’s love and forgiveness. “Doubting Thomas” lacks faith even to believe in the risen Lord. He proclaims that he will not believe in the resurrection until he has the opportunity to probe the Lord’s nail prints and place his hand in his wounded side. (see John 20: 19ff) What is Jesus’ response to Thomas' struggling trust? He comes to Thomas in person and allows him to touch and see, with the desire that he not just recognize the wounds, but that he come to faith--not just to be seen as a physical reality, but that the eyes of faith may no longer be blinded. Doubting Thomas’ problem is not that he can’t see the Lord’s wounds, but that he cannot recognize the blindness of his own lack of faith.
   What happens in the Sacrament of Reconciliation? We learn to recognize those things in us that prevent us from having a healthy, mature, faithful relationship with God. Probing the depths of our hearts, minds, bodies, and relationships, we probe our own inner woundedness, and in newfound faith, offer these wounds to the Divine Physician who conquered death itself. This drama takes place in faith, and requires us to not only “do the work” of confess
ion, penance, and satisfaction in the “objective” (visible, perhaps even mechanical) order of the sacrament, but also to “receive the grace” of forgiveness by allowing the personal, sacramental encounter to change our lives by increased faith, renewed commitment to avoiding sin, confidence in dispelling feelings of guilt for the past, and a renewal in love for the things of God. Our encounter with the wounded Jesus is meant to completely change us each time we receive this sacrament, but it can only happen if we have faith. Divine Mercy Sunday is an invitation to deeper faith in the Risen Lord and the forgiveness he offers.
   For the Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005, which would be the weekend of his passage into eternal life, the “Divine Mercy Pope” prepared a message for the world what would turn out to be his valedictory: “To humanity, which at times seems to be lost and dominated by the power of evil, egoism, and fear, the risen Lord offers as a gift his love that forgives, reconciles and reopens the spirit to hope. It is love that converts the heart and gives peace. How much the world has to understand and accept Divine Mercy!”