Divine Mercy Sunday 2024

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          God died. Have you ever wrestled with that? The very fact that the Creator of the entire universe became one of us so that He could show us how to live, suffer, and die, and go back Home, after defeating sin and death. Alleluia! He chose this way, because He is Mercy and Love. “The message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…for the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

          Friends, as we celebrate this Divine Mercy Sunday, the final day of the Octave of Easter, we reflect on Jesus’ appearance to His disciples after the Resurrection, when Thomas is absent. Do you notice, then, what Thomas says? "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." (John 20:19-31) After the scandal of the Cross, can you imagine the heaviness of the apostles’ hearts before seeing Jesus Risen? Even though the other apostles have seen Our Resurrected Lord, Thomas doubts. Yet he asks about Our Lord’s wounds. After His Resurrection, Jesus could have appeared in His glory without His Most Precious Wounds. But do you see the beauty in this encounter? When Jesus appears again, and Thomas is present, Jesus already knows about Thomas’ statement and invites him into His Sacred Wounds. And so He invites us. We have not seen, yet we believe in the “power and wisdom of God.” “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24) And now, in His grandeur and strength, He is Risen, yet still bearing His Precious Wounds, so that we might come to Him with ours. This is what Divine Mercy Sunday is all about…

          In the words of Father Mike Schmitz, from his homily on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2020, “When strength and security is gone, mercy is given. Mercy is the love that we don’t deserve. It is the love that God wants to give us the most.” He shows us that He desires to give us this very love, namely, merciful love, as He invites us to share in His precious Cross. We all bear wounds. Some visible, some invisible. Jesus sees them all. If we would, but bring them to Him, bring them to Light Himself, He would delight to heal us. “God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) This is the love given which we do not deserve. This is Divine Mercy. 

          On this Divine Mercy Sunday, I encourage us all to reflect on the ways the Divine Physician has healed us, and give Him thanks and glory! And perhaps there are still places in the depths of our hearts which are aching to be healed…Jesus does not turn away from these wounds, these hurts, these broken places. He comes to restore, to heal, to bring back to life! The Wounded Healer delights to heal. When the strength and security of walls we have built come down, He can enter into this vulnerability and work wonders. “In my deepest wound I saw Your glory, and it dazzled me.” (Saint Augustine)

“Do not be afraid; just have faith.” (Mark 5:36) 

          Many times we want to bring to Jesus the best of the best, all of the good things we do and are, which comes from a good place (to offer the King of Kings our very best!). However, when we bring to Jesus our littleness, brokenness, sinfulness, woundedness, and poverty, His Divine Mercy can act, for he “did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Luke 5:32) Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, in her letter, Let Yourself be Loved, says this, “He rejoices to build up in you by His love and for His glory, and it is He alone who wants to work in you, even though you will have done nothing to attract this grace except that which a creature can do: works of sin and misery…He loves you like that. He loves you “more than these.”” Saint Elizabeth knew well the merciful love of God, and so she wrote this letter near the end of her life to Mother Germaine, her prioress. It is such a simple statement, yet it is all-encompassing, “let yourself be loved.”

          Let us then bring ourselves, as we are in fact, before the Divine Physician, Who is Mercy and Love, and let ourselves be loved by Him. Let us not be afraid that our wounds are any hindrance to Him, but rather the means by which He can draw even closer to us. Let us then love Him in return, with His own love, which He so readily gives to those open to receive it, and share this love, share Him, with a world in desperate need…the world which He “so loved.” (John 3:16) 

          Oh Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus, as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You! (Divine Mercy Chaplet)

“...within Your Wounds, hide me.” (Anima Christi)