Divine Mercy Sunday--Second Sunday Of Easter (Or Sunday Of Divine Mercy)

Jim Friedrich shared that at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Church of All Nations, next to the Garden of Gethsemane, there is a sign warning every visitor: “NO EXPLANATIONS INSIDE THE CHURCH.”

The sign is intended to discourage over-talkative tour guides but it’s also what Jesus practiced after his resurrection: no explaining or blaming: He simply wished them peace and forgave them.

Jesus shows up to his disciples who abandoned him before his crucifixion, and who are now huddled like frightened rabbits behind locked doors (John 20:19), but he did not explain anything to them about what had happened to him. Instead, he repeated "Peace be with you!" (John 19,21) which is another way of saying, "I forgive you."

One writer commented that, if he had been resurrected, he would have gone first to Pontius Pilate and said, "Pilate, you made a big mistake. Now, it's payback time! Then, he would have gone to Caiaphas, the high priest who condemned Jesus, and said, "Oh, really, so I was guilty of blasphemy, was I?!! And you said that I was not the Messiah! Check your Bible one more time and review the Prophecies!”

A Protestant minister said, “When told, by a woman in my congregation, that she had at last received the power to forgive the person who had so horribly wronged her (it only took her twenty years!), I said to her, "Really? I guess then that Robert Funk got it wrong. Jesus really did rise from the dead and come back to harass the very people who betrayed him."

…Harass your heart, that is, if you are withholding forgiveness from someone.

Application-- Mercy is the virtue of cognitive empathy. There is no need for fraternal correction when someone is already grieving for their sin. However, it IS necessary to grieve over sin because to the degree that we deny or remain ignorant of the gravity of injustice and the suffering caused by it, and that we are unable of ourselves to make it right, then the power and wonder and meaning of divine mercy do not appear for us.

2. Jesus then told his Apostles that their main work will be to lose and bind sin. It’s an astounding commission.

This divine commissioning is sealed by the breath of the Holy Spirit. Remember that Jesus' critics were outraged that he presumed to act like God and forgive sins (Luke 7:49). Now Jesus extends this sacramental power (this outrage), giving the Apostles the power to forgive (compare with Matt. 16:19, 18:18).

Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest? Well, you just heard why, because Jesus commissioned his ministers to do so in His Name.

The means by which God forgives sins after baptism is confession.

1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Minor or venial sins can be confessed directly to God, but for grave or mortal sins, which crush the spiritual life out of the soul, God has instituted a different means for obtaining forgiveness—the sacrament known popularly as confession, penance, or reconciliation.

Since it is not possible to confess all of our many daily faults, we know that sacramental reconciliation is required only for grave or mortal sin or Christ would not have commanded it.

Tertullian, writing in 203 AD said that “[Regarding confession, some] flee from this work as being an exposure of themselves, or they put it off from day to day. I presume they are more mindful of modesty than of salvation, like those who contract a disease in the more shameful parts of the body and shun making themselves known to the physicians; and thus they perish along with their own bashfulness” (Repentance 10:1 [A.D. 203]). –source: Catholic Answers

Pride can keep people from confession or even from acknowledging that sin exists.

Voluntary despair is when the pride of an ego, confident in its own autonomy and sufficiency, despairs because it can’t get rid of the suffering on its own power.

When this goes a step further, it becomes despair in “defiance” [Trodsen], which is the will to be in misery, instead of experiencing metanoia and receiving divine mercy.

3. Lastly, the source of the power of Divine Mercy is “the pierced Heart of the Savior” (St. JPII) which is the source of Redemption.

Vocation and mission mean bringing the world, through Mary, to Divine Mercy! Mary knows the power of merciful Love better than anyone. In fact, St. JPII says she knows it “more than any other heart in the whole universe, visible and invisible.”

Essentially, consecrating ourselves to Jesus through Mary “means accepting her help to offer ourselves and to bring the whole world to Redemption and Salvation in Jesus Christ. [Homily of Pope John Paul II in Fatima, Portugal on May 13, 1982].

The word “mercy” comes from the Latin “misericors” (miserable) and cor (heart).

Don’t forget the heart of Jesus, and bring the miserable there, which is Divine Mercy.

Amen.