Divine Mercy Sunday

During Babe Ruth’s baseball career, he drifted away from his faith. One night he was very ill in a New York hospital, and a friend suggested he makes his peace with God. As a result, Babe Ruth asked to see a priest. After celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation, Babe Ruth wrote: “As I lay in bed that evening, I thought to myself – what a comfortable feeling to be free from fear and worries. I could simply turn them over to God.”  What an expression of Trust in God’s Love and Mercy. The greatest message of Jesus in all of the Gospels is Mercy In the Gospel of John (3:17) -“For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” God does not desire the destruction of sinners but their conversion. Our Psalmist from today’s readings says, “I was hard pressed and was falling, but the LORD helped me”, and “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting”. The message of God’s Divine Mercy and forgiveness – that flows from God’s abundant love – is the source of our hope.

As written in her Diary – Jesus said to St. Faustina: “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy” (Diary, 300).  If you were to take all of the sins ever committed on earth, they would not amount to a grain of sand in comparison to the oceans of the Divine Mercy of God.  God always provides in super abundance. 

The Sacrament of Reconciliation or Penance – is one of the greatest gift of God to His Church – through which we experience God’s mercy – through Christ – with Christ – in Christ…  People should want to take advantage of such a great blessing – such a great gift. A gift is no good unless you unwrap it and open it and use it.  Pope Francis said: “The greatest sin today is that people have lost the sense of sin” and therefore lost “the meaning of the kingdom of God” and in its place the sense of “I can do anything” has emerged. 

As an example, using the biblical episode in which King David falls in love with Bathsheba and sends her husband, general Uriah, to fight in the front line and thus to certain death. It is in fact a murder.  King David is faced with a great sin, but he does not see it as a sin. He doesn’t even think of asking for forgiveness. Instead, all he thinks about is: ‘How can I resolve this?’  It can happen to all of us. I think we can all relate to it. We are all sinners and we are all tempted. It’s part of life’s normal struggle. But the problem – the most serious problem is not so much temptation and sin against God’s commandments, but our behavior and attitude towards sin. Pope Francis said that when the Kingdom of God is forgotten, when the Kingdom of God diminishes, one of the signs is a loss of the sense of sin”.

We live in a very secular and atheistic world and the focus is on the power of man instead of God’s glory!  We have become masters in justifying ourselves. We always have alibi that explains our shortcomings. Everything can be explained away. It is always the other person’s fault. And so – people do not think in terms of sin anymore, they no longer feel sorry and repentant and therefore, in their mind, there is no need to change.  The truth is: Salvation will not come from our cunning, our cleverness, or our intelligence. Salvation comes from God’s grace and how we train every day of our Christian life cooperating with God’s grace.  In the midst of trials, violence and hatred in the world, in the midst of struggles in life, God wants the world He created and loved to know Him in a relationship of intimate trust.

The message of The Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us — all of us. And, he wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.   The Divine Mercy message is one we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC: 

A – Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.

Jesus told St. Faustina: What offends Him more than the sins people commit is people’s lack of trust in His mercy. Jesus told St. Faustina to tell people His Message: “If you think you are a greater sinner than the others, the more you have a greater claim, a greater right to My Mercy.”  Jesus said: “Let them come to me. Everyone who comes to seek my mercy, I will not disappoint them.” “I will grant them the remission of all their sins, even if they be as scarlet; if they be more than the grains of sand on the seashore and the stars in the heavens.”

B – Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us. Our being forgiven of our sins depends on our being merciful also towards others. As in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” The first step in being merciful with others is to reflect on our own sinfulness and countless times we have been forgiven instead of judging those who have sinned against us. “Have you ever thought that you are also capable of doing those bad things people did, maybe even worse? – if given the opportunity or if you were put in the same situation.

Mother Teresa said: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

A – Ask for God’s mercy.
B – Be merciful

C – Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.

“Jesus, I trust in You!” This prayer clearly expresses the attitude with which we, too would like to abandon ourselves trustfully in the hands of our only Savior – Jesus Christ.

When we go to confession – we tell the priest – in essence – we tell Christ… – who is using the body of the priest – we start with: “Bless me Father for I have sinned.”  Doesn’t it sound odd or strange? It seems there is some boldness or arrogance in those words: “Bless me…” It seems more natural or more correct to say: “Punish me…” or “Spare me… for I have sinned.” But bless me, for I have sinned?  There is a profound truth there. Blessing is not deserving. Blessing is not payment for good deeds. Blessing is not earned. Quite the opposite, blessing is the gift one receives by pure grace and mercy. Grace is getting what we do not deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. AND – When one receives a blessing – it says more about the goodness of the one who blesses or the one who gives the blessing than the goodness of the one being blessed. Think about how this applies to Thomas, Doubting Thomas.  He wasn’t around when Jesus appeared to the disciples the first time.  They all told him of the Lord’s appearance, but he doubted.  He could not wrap his head around the idea that he would rise from the dead.  Then just a week later Jesus appeared to the group and Thomas was there.  Jesus offers his wounds to Thomas as proof and Thomas responds with the greatest of responses, which is “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus did not ridicule or condemn him.  He loved him and Thomas trusted.  The Gospel goes on to say that many other signs were given.  Some were not written down, but others were so that we might come to believe also and have life in His name.  Such a great gift!

We also need to realize that a blessing is not just a gift. It is also a commissioning. In the Gospel, Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

The question to us is – How does our faith in the Risen Lord, in the Resurrection, in the Divine Mercy of God, in His unconditional love for us – affect our attitude? How does our faith affect how we see ourselves, how we see and treat other people, and therefore how we live our daily lives?

Remember the ABC’s.  
A – Ask for God’s mercy.  B – Be merciful. C – Completely trust in Jesus.