Divine Mercy Sunday

We hear Jesus in today’s Gospel passage extend his peace to his apostles. “Peace be with you.”

At every Mass I say a prayer after the Our Father recalling these very same words of Jesus, and then ask Jesus to grant us the peace and unity of his kingdom where he lives forever and ever. Then, we then exchange the sign of Christ’s peace.

What is this peace of Christ we offer one another?

In the 1930s, Jesus appeared to Faustina, a Polish religious sister in Krakow, Poland, now Saint Faustina. He said to her, “mankind will not have real peace until it turns with trust to my mercy.”

The peace of Christ is tied to his mercy.

God desperately wants to forgive our sins so we may live free from the chains of sin and live in the freedom of the children of God. Living reconciled with God and neighbor is finding true peace – though the world be falling apart, we remain at peace in the presence of God.

There is a part of the human soul that follows the steps of doubtful Thomas. We doubt God’s mercy and love. We doubt his ability to forgive us. We allow doubt to keep us away from the mercy God freely offers us.

We so often hold on to grudges, despair over past sins, hate those who hurt us, despair over politics, blame ourselves and curse others. All of these leave our hearts bitter and hardened, unreconciled and distant from God and neighbor.

If we could only grasp the mercy God shows us. Saint John Vianney, patron saint of diocesan priests wrote, “Our sins are nothing but a grain of salt alongside the great mountain of the mercy of God.”

We must grow aware of God’s unfathomable mercy and the compassion he is quick to show when we approach with repentant hearts. God’s mercy is greater than any sin we could ever commit or imagine to commit. Our sin and offenses vanish like a drop of water poured onto a blazing fire.

Jesus wants us to have peace and live in a peace which is only found through union with him. It is found through the forgiveness of our sins.

We need to ask for God’s mercy, be merciful ourselves and trust in God’s mercy to find peace in our hearts.

Jesus entrusted his early Church the power to forgive sins as we heard in the Gospel passage, therefore the Church’s task is to extend and make manifest God’s divine mercy. Through the waters of baptism sin is washed away and we are restored to grace. Through the sacrament of penance, God restores us to his image and likeness while strengthening us for the Christian journey.

If the peace of Christ is established one heart at a time, then the world would know peace. A peace that is not simply the lack of conflict, but the joy that comes from living in harmony with God and those around us.

Peace is Jesus’ Easter gift to us. His mercy is His greatest attribute. We celebrate this today, Divine Mercy Sunday, a feast instituted in 2000 by Pope John Paul II following the message of Sister Faustina’s private revelation.

Today we celebrate with the whole universal Church the power of God’s mercy and give thanks for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, a universal spiritual leader whose mission on Earth was to proclaim the Gospel by word and example to the very end of his life.

Jesus, I trust in you.

Saint Faustina, pray for us.

Blessed John Paul II, pray for us.