Acts 4:32-35, 1 John 5: 1-7, John 20:19-31
1. One of the ways that I savor or prolong the Joy of Easter is by eating leftover Cinnamon Rolls, Lithuanian Sausage, Hard boiled Eggs and Candy from Easter Sundays celebration…but ALL WEEK long if possible. Silly as it sounds, I even have hid some extra sausage or candy to get at it later. Easter is one of those celebrations I like to linger on.
2. In the Church, Easter (along with Christmas and Pentecost) is a privileged feast, or solemnity. In a solemnity, the church too, tries to PROLONG the JOY that comes with the celebration of that feast. To do this, the church developed the concept of making it an 8 day celebration. So this past week is called the OCTAVE of Easter. One of the liturgical points of an Octave is to make what we celebrate on the 8th day as important as what we celebrated on the 1st day. So really Easter is not over yet. The 8th day celebration also serves as a way to bring the feast of Easter to a CONCLUSION, but still on a HIGH NOTE.
Now in 2001 Pope John Paul proclaimed that this 2nd Sunday in the Octave of Easter, is to be celebrated universally in the church as DIVINE MERCY Sunday. So that what Jesus did by dying on Friday and rising from the dead on Easter Sunday, we savor for 8 days, and on the 2nd Sunday of Easter, we proclaim them as THEE acts of DIVINE MERCY. So in other words, we must not reduce the joy of Easter to the eating of left over Rolls, Sausage, Hard Boiled Eggs and Candy.
3. MERCY must be understood as a GOODNESS that has someone as its’ object. Mercy is the HELP and BENEVOLENCE that is born, as it is demanded from a relationship between such people as family, friends, guests and so on. Divine Mercy is most importantly between GOD and His PEOPLE. Mercy is the link that keeps the relationship alive and active. Divine Mercy is not limited in any way. It is EXTRAVAGANT, ABUNDANT and at times to us, it is utterly inconceivable that someone would be so GOOD or MERCIFUL. Divine Mercy while it starts with God extending His goodness to man (Creation, Covenants, Incarnation, Death & resurrection, Pentecost, Church and Sacraments are all acts of Mercy), the truth is, we the recipients of this Mercy, are expected to similarly extend MERCY to others.
4. The perennial problem is man has a awfully hard time coming to grips with Divine Mercy as it was extended to us. And in the Gospel narratives after the death, does it surprise or amaze you that the Apostles were so reluctant to believe that Christ, who had suffered such a horrible death, could have risen from the dead as He had promised. We must remember that during their three years with him they saw nothing in him but a mere man, one with divine powers, but yet a man. For Christ had “emptied himself” of his divine nature, but that he could be really God, as well as man, was something they could not then grasp, and if he was a mere man death had to be the end. And when the apostles and finally Thomas came around, it still took 50 days and the Holy Spirit for them to begin to preach the GOOD NEWS of God’s Mercy to all they met.
6. But when the Good News that those, at one time timid apostles preached, began to resonate with the people, the story from the Acts of the Apostles in today’s first reading, describe the great FERVOR of the first Jerusalem Christians. They were so FILLED with the LOVE of God and neighbor that everyone SHARED with his fellow Christians all that he had. They probably even shared their Rolls, Sausage, Hard boiled eggs and Candy. The Christian community in Jerusalem held all things in common. This story then, is a good example of those who realized they had received mercy, are now extending mercy to others. Acts done out of love of God and neighbor are acts of Christian idealism was at its height.
7. Divine Mercy is not only the title for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, it is also the Name of the Devotion to Divine Mercy. It is a long story, but suffice to say Jesus appeared to a Polish Nun, St. Sister Faustina in 1936 and asked her to spread Devotion to His Divine Mercy. With the Power of a Polish Papacy this Devotion is spreading. Around the world and even here at this church today, many people at the 3 O clock hour, will sing the Divine Chaplet, PRAYING that God will continue to pour out His Mercy on all people, as we too extend that Mercy to others. These gatherings will close the great Octave of Easter in a very big way.
8. I close with a quote from Jesus in St. Faustina’s Diary that I hope will spur your desire to understand more and spread to others Divine Mercy.
“I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it. I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor: the first — by DEED, the second — by WORD, the third — by PRAYER. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.”
Today let’s forget the Rolls, Sausage and Candy. And let’s savor Easter 1 more day, as we leave, let us greet one another with one of our Easter Mantra sayings: “Happy Easter”, “Christ is Risen! He is truly risen!” Or He is alive!. Because Easter is NOT OVER.
Jesus’ Call to Mercy
Many souls … are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.
If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy” (1317)
The Divine Mercy we talk about at Easter time begins in Holy Week. We are to emotionally feel the pain, sadness and hurt of Our Lord’s Passion. And hopefully as you immersed yourself into the Passion, you feel the horror of every denial, spit, slap, taunt, thorn, nail and stab Jesus received. And if that is not enough you get into the FEAR, CONFUSION and UNCERTAINTY the disciples felt too. And as we realize that we are the ones who caused all this, and then we realize that Jesus should not of had to do this for us, we then begin to understand what Divine Mercy is. An Octave is a time to extend Joy, so it’s easy to see how we don’t have an 8th day for His passion? Wasn’t 1 day, 1 hour, or even 1 minute enough?
Importantly and good for us, the negative emotion that we felt in ALL the suffering of Holy Week, it swung 180 degrees, and now during this Easter Octave, we now feel every emotional HIGH possible that comes with the knowledge and joy of a Life restored at the Resurrection. And again we see the abundant goodness of Divine Mercy become available to us through the forgiveness of our sins…our new life.
Divine mercy is when God empties Himself to become Man.
Divine Mercy is when God dies to redeem us from Sin.
Divine Mercy is when God restores life and defeats death.
Divine mercy is when the Holy Spirit comes to help us gain eternal life.
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