THE FEAST OF MERCY: AN OCEAN OF GRACE
A young man once approached Archbishop Fulton Sheen and asked, “How can I be sure God will forgive my sins after I go for confession?” Archbishop Sheen brought him to a beach and told him to pick up a handful of sand. The young man did so. The archbishop said, “Now throw it into the sea.” Curious, the young man flung the sand into the water. “Can you gather back all those grains of sand?” The archbishop asked. “No,” replied the man.
That, Archbishop Sheen explained, was what the power of God’s forgiveness was like. When God forgives our sins, He casts them into an ocean of mercy, kindness, forgiveness and forgetfulness. There’s no retrieving them. They disappear into the endless sea while we stand there on the shore, cleansed by the winds of the Holy Spirit.
The hole in the beach where the sand was scooped out is now filled, overflowing, with His grace.
The Terrible Beauty of God’s Mercy
Today marks the Octave of Easter and the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday. It was designated as such by Pope St John Paul II on the second Sunday of Easter of Jubilee Year 2000, based on St Faustina Kowalska’s revelations from Christ, who expressed His desire for a ‘Feast of Mercy’.
But we spent a month preparing for Holy Week, then entered the Triduum and Easter Sunday where we saw the mercy of God in the form of His Son’s unfathomable sacrifice. Why the need to put a pin on mercy the very next week?
It’s not something new that the Church added by naming this new feast. Instead, it’s renewed the final day of a great one. Mercy Sunday is designed to get souls back to the practice of their faith. On Easter Sunday and its ensuing days, we celebrated the creation of grace that Christ gave us by His Passion, death, and resurrection. On the Octave of Easter, we celebrate the fulfilment of what Easter is about.
We celebrate the ongoing, humbling, terrible beauty of God’s mercy, dreadful and wonderful in what it took to bring us salvation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church points to the Word of God as the story of Divine Mercy: The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God's mercy to sinners (1849). It’s the story of a love so great it was willing to knowingly prepare for and suffer an unwarranted, terrible painful death. For what reward? The desire to have humankind eternally with the Holy Trinity.
It’s something hard to understand: the fact that we’re worth that much to someone. But that’s the Good News we’re called to share: not just that God died out of mercy for us 2,000 years ago, but that He continues to suffer for love and compassion of us, that He desires us still, and wants so much for us to accept His mercy as the way to joining Him for all eternity. Pope Benedict XVI said, “Divine Mercy is not a secondary devotion, but an integral dimension of Christian faith and prayer…the central nucleus of the Gospel message.”
But what is Divine Mercy? Mercy, said Pope St John Paul II, is love’s second name. It’s when God’s love meets our sin and suffering and offers us a way – the only Way – out of our brokenness and pain. It’s God always coming to our help and freely offering forgiveness, seventy times seven times, if only we’d accept it.
If we turn that Mercy away, if we walk away from what the Triduum and Easter and the Octave are all about, then we’re consigning ourselves to the God’s judgement, not compassion. St Faustina records this: ‘‘Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice …’ (Diary, no. 1146).
Jesus wants to prepare us for His Second Coming. He wants to pour out His graces in great abundance to give souls a chance to be completely washed clean before He comes. The Church, in explaining the Feast of Mercy, indicates that the promise of Jesus for the forgiveness of all sins and punishment is ‘equal to the grace that is received in the Sacrament of Baptism’.
How happy we were at the sight of our newly-baptised and confirmed at the Vigil Mass! We cheered their acceptance of the Mercy they were led to, we prayed, and pray still, for their ongoing openness to the grace that comes from this Mercy. And we, like they, must continue seeking that Mercy by constantly availing ourselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, never becoming complacent and taking it for granted. Even if the shame and guilt of what we’ve done try to hold us back, we need to run towards that ocean of mercy and not pause at the shore, second-guessing God’s forgiveness.
It's compelling, that picture of the disciples: hiding behind closed doors, jumping at every sound from outside, anxious and terrified. Wondering if they’d be next to be arrested, tortured, locked away. Or worse. Then suddenly, inexplicably, seeing with amazement and disbelief their beloved Master suddenly right there in the room, blessing them again and again with His peace, breathing His Holy Spirit on them.
That’s a good picture to hold on to when sin makes us believe God can’t forgive us this time because we’ve done it again; when our feet won’t take us into the Confessional. Divine Mercy Sunday reminds us there’s a whole ocean waiting to wash us clean, as long as we feel the sting of reproach, of sorrow, for having offended such a loving Lord.
Today, in this feast we celebrate, we must grab this offer of merciful forgiveness, paid for with such a heavy, terrible price: ‘On that day the very depths 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. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet’ (Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, no. 699).
And we experience again the joy of Easter, when we rise from the tomb of our sins!
Write down all you see…Do not be afraid
It would be easy to luxuriate in the joy of Easter Sunday and forget that in the new life we’ve been given, we’re supposed to go out and continue the work of the disciples. We see this in the bold, passionate proclamation of the disciples in today’s first reading, in the faithful writings of John, all alone on Patmos; and in the Gospel text where the resurrected Jesus announces He is sending them as the Father sent Him.
Think of all the times in which Mercy took away your sins, granted you God’s peace. Recall how it feels after confessing to a priest all that led you away from divine love. Someone else needs to know that today. We’re meant to offer mercy and compassion in the same way we received it. We need to tell others that this gift can be theirs, too.
To do that with constant zeal, we have to recall what Divine Mercy does for us. Long after His ultimate sacrifice to make a way for us to go to the Father, Jesus continues to pour His love and compassion on us. Divine mercy looked with love and compassion on the crowds desperate for even just Peter’s shadow to heal them, on John who fell in a dead faint at the feet of One he actually knew personally, and on Thomas, who wouldn’t believe in the Risen Christ without proof.
None of the disciples were infallible. They sinned like us. They suffered the consequences of their failings, like us. But they walked in the mercy of Jesus. They accepted the Holy Spirit working in them and their zeal in proclaiming Christ was unbounded, fearless. They spread the message of divine mercy and love everywhere. The Church, our parish, our homes and neighbourhoods, work or school places, are our Portico of Solomon where, together, we show what it means to be followers of Jesus.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy
It starts with God’s mercy and continues with ours. Like the disciples, we’re called to embrace what the Risen Christ wants to give us, and what He wants us to give others, when He said, “Peace be with you. Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.” (Jn 20:21-23).
Even after the Easter season ends, that Mercy will live on in us and, if we’re generous with it, spread to others. Think of the compassion and forgiveness you might be withholding from someone. Or yourself. Consider whether you’ve been hiding behind sin, afraid or unwilling to acknowledge it. How deeply do you believe that divine mercy will forgive you? How far do you believe that Christ is alive today, that even though we can’t see Him He’s here, real and present, in your life? How steadily do you emulate His loving compassion, kindness, readiness to forgive?
This is something we might want to reflect on today, as we celebrate with humble gratitude the unfathomable mercy of God. The answers, for each of us, will, hopefully, give us a new determination to walk in Jesus as the disciples did.
Pope St John Paul II died on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday, the feast he’d been dedicated to establishing, and which gave him such happiness. His last written words were read on Mercy Sunday, the day after he died. He called for a greater acceptance and understanding of Divine Mercy by all people. In life he’s passionately urged the faithful to receive and share God’s boundless mercy. It’s our turn now to carry on that mission.
Today we thank our Lord for such a great love and such a great gift. We pray that we, too, will be brave enough, by His grace, to receive His mercy and witness to it, beyond this Sunday of Divine Mercy.
May the blessings of Easter continue to pour down on you, the Holy Spirit fill you to overflowing with zealous love, and the ocean of Divine Mercy wash you from sin with endless grace!
Article by Joyce Norma, HFC Blog Contributor