Divine Mercy
Written By. Gerald
The feast of Divine Mercy was established on April 30th, 2000 by Pope St. John Paul II, on the occasion of the canonization of St Mary Faustina Kowalska, the Polish Nun and visionary through whom the Lord Jesus Christ requested that the second Sunday of Easter be reserved to honor and commemorate God's infinite mercy. How fitting that the Pope himself, a great Apostle of mercy, was canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday, 2014!.
Christianity is a story of the infinite mercy of God, without which we are lost and hopeless. Nothwistanding our unfaithfulness, the Lord has remained faithful through the ages and his mercy is always more than sufficient to cover our sin, hence St. Paul rightly notes that , "Where sin increased, grace increased all the more" (Rom.5:20). The sacrifice of Christ is a blank cheque that we draw upon time and time again to pay for our sins. That is a mark of God's inimitable and unfanthomable generosity. In one of her visions the Lord said to St. Faustina: " I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day, the very depts of my tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of my mercy. The soul that will go to confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment."
Jesus not only showered mercy upon his Apostles, all of whom abandoned him just days earlier, he also instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation and commissioned them to be Ministers of his mercy: "If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained" (John 20:23). Through this sacrament the unbounded ocean of God's mercy overruns our iniquities and shame.
In the aftermath of the French Revolution, there was an old man with a limp. He had been wounded in one of Napoleon's many battles. This man begged for alms from one village to another, which he hated to do. He got to a certian village in Western France one evening and made his way to the steps of the church. He was willing to take coins from church-goers but he despised them all the way for believing in God who could have permitted the terrible crimes he had witnessed. The next morning the priest found thr beggar huddled on the steps in a worn blanket and, after Mass, invited him in for breakfast. The old soldier felt repulsed, as he always did when taking charity, but hunger and the kindness on the priest's face made him to accept. He stayed there for several days and the priest remained very kind all through.
This beggar had never been loved so much , so generously. And he had never felt so miserable. Finally, he asked for confession. One of his sins stood out from the rest. He had been the most trusted servant of a noble family. The head of that family had unsuccessfully rebelled against the revoution. His wife and six children entrusted their lives and fortunes to the servant. But for a bag of gold coins he betrayed his master's wife and children and watched them get beheaded one-by-one. Only the youngest child managed to escape and there was no trace of him. With tears of shame, the stranger finished his confession. The priest gave him absolution, pulled up and embraced him. But as the soldier raised his eyes, he saw a picture on the wall - that of the family he had betrayed to their deaths. Shocked, he pulled back from the priest. "Who are you", he asked. "Where did you get that painting?" The priest smiled. "I am the youngest son of that family, my friend. And I forgive you.
Our greatest treasure as Catholics is the revelation of Christ, the perfect expression of divine mercy, the only force strong enough to penetrate the walls of pain, anger, fear, and resentment that we have built around our hearts. In any case, God's mercy is infinitely greater than that of the young priest, because it is a convenant sealed in the blood of his only Son and there can be no greater love and mercy than that. Through his sacrificial death, Jesus unleashed on the world a flood of mercy. This flood has yet to reach every heart, so we are invited to become its channels.