Divine Mercy Sunday April 7, 2024
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Happy Easter! Alleluia! Jesus is truly Risen!
Today, we complete the Octave of Easter – the eight day
celebration of Resurrection Day. The Gospel of John
20:19-31, Jesus tells the apostles: “As the Father has sent
me, so I send you.” Why did the Father send the Son?
Saint Luke 19:10 tells us – “For the Son of Man has
come to seek and to save what was lost.” The Father sent
the Son to be the Good Shepherd to search for the sheep
that has wandered off. Jesus’ entire ministry was to heal
the sinner. Disease was believed to be caused by sin.
Jesus healed the sick. If you had misfortune it was
because of sin. Jesus fed the hungry and welcomed the
outcast. Even the very last act of Jesus on the cross was
to forgive the repentant thief. Jesus desired that his
ministry of forgiveness would continue and so he sent
the apostles to continue his work, in his name, as he
breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose
sins you retain are retained.” God could not have been
more clear than this to assure us that sins are to be
forgiven. Saint Paul reminds Timothy that he shares in
the ministry of reconciliation through the imposition of
his hands; that is to say, that Timothy is also to forgive
sins in the name of Christ. How appropriate that today is
Divine Mercy Sunday.We have this Sunday and the
Devotion of the Divine Mercy which consists of a
Chaplet and litanies because Jesus appeared to a Polish
nun, Faustina Kowalska and asked her to have his image
painted and to promote this devotion to His Divine Mercy.
She lived from 1905 – 1938. Pope John Paul II took
heed of this message and canonized St. Faustina on April
30, 2000 and he established the Sunday after Easter as
the Sunday of Divine Mercy. The first Divine Mercy
Sunday was celebrated universally on April 22, 2001.
Pope John Paul II was the Pope of Mercy, who died in
April 2005 on the Vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday, who
himself was beatified on Divine Mercy Sunday, May 1,
2011, by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, and was
canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27th, 2014, by
Pope Francis. We honor St. Faustina and St. John Paul II
for promoting the Divine Mercy of Jesus on this Day as
we worship our Lord of Mercy, Jesus Christ who has
come to us by taking on our human condition through
the Blessed Virgin Mary. Jesus, as the mercy of God the
Father, He has come to share in our suffering by coming
close to us and entrusting the Ministry of Mercy to His
Church. Through the ministry of the priest, Jesus who
gives himself to us as food, is the one who forgives our
sins in the Sacrament of Confession.
Jesus Christ is Risen. Alleluia!
Fr. Steven Guitron