Encountering the Mercy of the Father
Second Sunday of Easter: Divine Mercy Sunday
This week, the Church celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday, owing to the benevolence and wisdom of St. John Paul II. The Gospel reading highlights this in a rather unique way:
“and he said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.' After saying this he breathed on them and said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained.’" (John 20:21-23)
On the surface, this really doesn’t seem like a profound manifestation of the Father’s Mercy for us, yet there is more happening here than meets the eye. The Church has long seen this verse as one of many biblical verses that evidence Reconciliation as a Sacrament. The Catechism tells us that, “Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, ‘The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ and exercises this divine power: ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name” (CCC 1441). The Catechism incidentally cites this very bible verse when referring to Christ endowing the Church with the authority to forgive sins.
The purpose of our meditation, however, isn’t apologetic. Rather, what we ought to remember about the readings this week is that the Mercy of God isn’t some passionate feeling that flows from an emotional movement within God. Instead, Mercy in God is infinitely greater than that.
While for us, Mercy can be compassion for the misery another person is enduring, or even the choice to remit the penalty of someone’s offense; in God, as St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us, Mercy perfects the work of His Justice. The offense isn’t just wiped away. When God shows us Mercy, he also restores the inner life of the soul that was lost due to our sin. That is something you and I are never able to do.
This is exactly why the Church, in her sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes this week, compels us to sing aloud,
“Christians, to the Paschal Victim
Offer your thankful praises!
A Lamb the sheep redeems;
Christ, who only is sinless,
Reconciles sinners to the Father!”
This is why the First letter of John AND the Gospel acclamation exhort us to profess a living faith in the one who has been victorious over the hitherto undefeatable foe that is sin and death! CHRIST HAS TRIUMPHED OVER OUR SIN AND DEATH AND RESTORED US TO KINSHIP WITH THE FATHER!
This is the reason why the Psalmist exhorts us to give thanks to the Lord, for He is Good, for his חֵסֵד (chesed) endures forever! The word chesed is difficult to translate. It is often rendered love, mercy, or loving-kindness. Its connotation, however, is that God has shown an extraordinary favor toward His covenant children! We don’t deserve His chesed, yet He freely lavishes it upon us! And nowhere more do we experience the shared immensity and glory of that Mercy than in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which unites us again and again to the magnificent act of merciful love that is Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross!
This week, as we listen to the readings, let us allow our innermost being to be fully immersed in the chesed of the Father—that indescribable lovingkindness and Mercy that draws the brokenness and sinfulness out of our very souls and lives, and fills us with the happiness of His own infinite love and divine life. This week, as we cling to the Sacraments, let us pray to be fully restored to the deep, abiding embrace of the Merciful Father.
Deus Benedicat