Divine Mercy Sunday

The first Sunday after Easter is celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday. In 1930, Jesus appeared to Faustina, A Polish Nun, and revealed to her the nature of God’s love. Jesus said to her: “My love is unlimited and available to all, especially to the poor sinners”. Jesus blessed her with a prayer for mercy. Sr. Faustina started a special devotion to the Divine Mercy of Jesus and popularized it. Our Late Holy Father Pope John Paul II encouraged this devotion and in 2000 on the day of her canonization, the Pope advised the universal church to celebrate this devotion on the first Sunday after Easter.

Mercy, another name for God. God is merciful and compassionate. The whole Bible is a series of stories that proclaim the unfailing and unconditional love of God towards humanity. The expressions like “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. See, upon the palms of my hands, I have written your name; your walls are ever before me” (Isaiah 49:15-16) talk volumes about the nature of God’s love. The Evangelist John beautifully summarized the depth and width of God’s love in the following statement: “ For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that every one who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” John 3:16).

Divine Mercy! What does it Mean?

The word mercy is derived from the Latin word misericordia. Misericordia is a combination of two words: miseri and cordia. Miseri means suffering and cordia means heart. Misericordia means a heart that is willing to suffer for others. God is merciful means that God has a heart which is willing to suffer for us, willing to do anything for us.

Jesus, Mercy incarnated. “I desire Mercy not sacrifice, I haven’t come to call the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). These words of Jesus beautifully explain how much Jesus possesses the heart and mind of God. Paul says: “God, who is rich in mercy, brought us to life with Christ” (Ephesians 2: 4). Sharing the mercy and love of God was Jesus’ mission. Jesus invited everyone “To find rest in him” (Matthew 12:28-30).

The readings for the second Sunday of Easter further substantiate this point. The Gospel (John 20:19-29) talks about two specific actions of Jesus that reflect his mercy and compassion.

1. When Jesus came to the room where disciples were hiding out of fear and remorse, he said to them: “Peace be with you, receive the Holy Spirit”. Jesus did not bring the past. He did not scold Peter for denying Him on the way to Calvary. Transcending the past, forgetting everything that had happened a couple of days ago, Jesus offered them peace and reconciliation.
   
   By offering them the Holy Spirit, Jesus was absolving them from their failures because God the Holy Spirit is the principle agent of sanctification. This is evident, if you recall the prayer of absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. “God, the Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit upon the church for the forgiveness of sins…”



2. Jesus showed the same mercy towards Thomas too. When Thomas was reluctant to believe in the resurrection, Jesus came to him, showed his wounded hands and satisfied his desire in the way Thomas wanted.

The way of mercy is the way of Grace. God is merciful. It is not enough to receive mercy from God. We need to show mercy to others. This is evident when Jesus said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7) and “I desire mercy not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Mt 9:13). The disciples understood this message. After they themselves witnessed the mercy of Jesus, they started a new life style based on the same principle. The second reading (Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35) is the practical application of this new life style. “They took care of each other. There was no one among them who was in need”. Jesus expects us to show mercy to one another. On the day of the final Judgment, the only criterion that Jesus is going to use will be ‘whether we were merciful to one another’ (Matthew 25:40,45). Finally, as the second reading (1 John 5:1-6) states: When we practice mercy in our daily life, we proclaim that we are the children of God.

Ashes on our Foreheads and Hope in our Hearts…!

Today is Ash Wednesday. Traditionally, people come to church on this day in large numbers and formally begin the journey of lent by applying ashes on their foreheads.

The Old Testament and New Testament refer to the use of ashes and sackcloth as signs of repentance. The prophet Jeremiah, for example, calls for repentance in this way: “ O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes” (Jer 6:26). Jesus, while talking about Chorazin and Bethsaida, remarked: “ Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes” ( Mt 11:21, Lk 10:13).

Ash Wednesday Practice for all believers started in the 10th century. Prior to that, ashes were given only to the public penitence. This was given to those entering the Order of Penitence. As time went on, others began to show their humility and their affection for the penitents by asking that they, too, be marked as sinners. Near the end of the 11th century Pope Urban extended the imposition of ashes to the whole congregation under the presumption that
“ all have sinned and all fall short of glory”.

What is Lent all about? Lent is a reminder of our mortality. Before God breathed into the nostrils of ‘Adam’ he was nothing more than a clay image. The breath of God raised him to the level of a living being. Without God’s life in us, we are dust. Naturally, Lent is a time to discover one’s status before God. It is a time for self -discovery. Our fall may be slow but steady. As in the story of the lost sheep (Lk 15: 1ff), at times we may not even be aware that we are drifting away from God. Sin progresses gradually. The story of the ‘Prodigal Son’ ( Lk 15: 11ff) gives a glimpse of the mechanism of sin. They are:-
• Selfishness : The son went to his Father and said: “Give me my
share”.
• Separation : By asking his share, he separated himself from his Father.
• Sensuality. : He went after worldly pleasures
• Starvation. : He looked around for food
• Subhuman behavior : He started eating with swine.

Lent is a time of self purification. Late is better than never. Our distractions tell us who we are and where we are. The Bible offers three spiritual tools for our purification: prayer, fasting and alms giving. They are not three independent entities but three aspects of the one and the same reality. Prayer is nothing but being with Jesus. In order to be with Jesus, we need to detach (fast) ourselves from material things. Whatever we may give up may help others to meet the necessities of their lives. Our detachment ( almsgiving) will benefit the needy.

Lent is a time for self-restoration. There is a beautiful passage in the book of Prophet Isaiah: “Do not remember the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not, I am doing something new, says the Lord” “ Your sins I remember no more” (Isaiah 43: 18, 25). God is a God of the future, not of the past. God wants to do something new in our life. In order to experience this newness that God promises we need to let our past go with all its bad and sad memories. We might have done awful things in the past. We may be still doing things that are unchristian, unethical and uncharitable. This is the time to break the chain of sinful habits. Brooding over the past memories of which we have no control do nothing good. They only paralyze our present. If God does not bother about our past sin, why do we? A person must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them. As every saint had a past every sinner has a future. Lent invites us to continue our journey focusing on Jesus with Hope in our Hearts…! Those who are in Jesus is a new creation. Lent is an invitation to climb the mount Calvary and have a vision of Mount Zion.