On April 30, 2000, in front of more than 250,000 pilgrims, at the canonization of Sister Faustina Kowalska, Pope John Paul II declared that the second Sunday of the Easter season would be known as Divine Mercy Sunday. The Divine Mercy of Jesus has become one of the popular devotions amongst the Catholic faithful throughout the world.
God’s divine mercy has been a teaching of the Catholic Church long before the revelations of Sister Faustina in 1931. The Catechism states that"the Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God's mercy to sinners" (1846). Divine Mercy is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict XVI reinforced this idea by stating that "Divine Mercy is not a secondary devotion, but an integral dimension of Christian faith and prayer.”
God’s mercy meets us in the midst of our suffering, our poverty, our brokenness, and our sins. In his divine mercy, God's love meets us and helps us in this reality. God’s mercy is that for all of us, no matter how dark our reality might seem. Sister Faustina’s revelation states: “All grace flows from mercy, and the last hour abounds with mercy for us. Let no one doubt concerning the goodness of God; even if a person’s sins were as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone is necessary; that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God’s merciful grace, and then God will do the rest.”
In our Gospel today for Divine Mercy Sunday, we see Thomas struggling with his faith and struggling to believe. Thomas reflects how all of us as disciples of Christ face the decision to follow Jesus and to believe in the midst of a very complicated messy world. Jesus met Thomas in that reality with patience, compassion, and mercy. Thomas is able to look at the risen Christ and to say in his belief: “My Lord and my God.” It is Christ’s divine mercy that helped Thomas see through the lens of his faith and to believe.
May the message of Divine Mercy Sunday be an integral part of our faith.
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