BECOMING A CHANNEL OF GOD’S MERCY FOR OTHERS
This is the faith that we pray for today, Divine Mercy Sunday
April 11—Second Sunday of Easter, Sunday of Divine Mercy
Readings: Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 118, R. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting; 1 John 5:1-6; Gospel—John 20: 19-31
The Divine Mercy devotion became a popular devotion during the papacy of St. Pope John Paul II. It was from St. Faustina Kowalska, to whom Jesus appeared several times to give her messages, that this devotion started. St. Faustina was given the title the “Secretary of Mercy.”
The two core messages of the devotion are to trust the infinite mercy of God, and to become a channel of this mercy for other people through our works and life witness.
Pope Francis’ vocation and ministry are very much influenced and inspired by an experience of God’s mercy.
This is a core commission of the Risen Lord to His early church as seen in today’s Gospel. “As the Father has sent Me, so I send you . . . Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Discerning faith
We, as church, are to bring God’s mercy to people. The twopronged “formula” of the devotion to the Divine Mercy will serve us well in this mission.
Trust the infinite mercy of God. Thomas’ journey of faith is one worthy of emulation in this regard. Though dubbed as doubting Thomas because of this Sunday’s Gospel, his is a discerning, “evidenced-based” faith.
In John 11, when Jesus was going to Lazarus, most of His “disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone You, and You want to go back there?’” (John 11: 8) But Thomas said to them, “Let us also go to die with Him.” (John 11: 16)
In the Final Discourse in John, we again see discerning Thomas. Jesus tells them, “Where [I] am going you know the way.” (John 14: 4) Thomas then asks, “Master, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” (v. 5)
This occasions on of the most quoted lines in the Gospels: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14: 6)
It is this same Thomas who now appears as doubting Thomas, but one now that we appreciate more as a faith seeking understanding and deepening, an “evidence-based” faith. And the moment he gets the evidence, he is the first person to acknowledge the divinity of the Risen Lord: “My Lord and my God.”
Such is the faith that we must nurture to trust in the infinite mercy of God and become a channel of this mercy for others.
Every consecration
Trust in God’s mercy comes with Thomas’ confession of faith, “My Lord and my God.” The affirmation of faith we recite and pray at every consecration.
Thomas moves east and does his missionary work in India, establishing the church in parts of the country. There he was known for his bias for the poor and dies a martyr’s death. Thomas’ faith becomes totally dedicated to the Risen Lord the moment he got his evidence.
This is the faith that we pray for today, on Divine Mercy Sunday. It is a faith that seeks evidence that it may give itself totally to the Lord, trusting in his mercy and in offering our life we make ourselves instruments in his hands to continue the work of mercy in the lives of others and in our world.
Jesus’ final word to Thomas in today’s Gospel—“Have you come to believe because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed”—is a gift of this Divine Mercy.
The Risen Lord gives premium to our faith, we “who have not seen and have believed.” It is our trusting in this assurance of the Risen Lord that will make us trust in his mercy and become instruments of mercy in hands—the mercy that humanity and the whole of creation so badly need to experience once more.