St. Dominic Catholic Church

Homilies

4/23/2017 Divine Mercy Sunday

On September 1, 1939, the Nazi army invaded Poland from the north, south and west. 

Sixteen days later, the Soviet Union, having made a secret pact with Germany, invaded from the east.

Thus began the Second World War.

A war without mercy.

Before it’s end, 71 million people would die, including 11 million people in concentration camps, including 1.1 million children and 6 million Jews.

 

I do not believe it is a coincidence that 8.5 years before, Jesus appeared to an unknown, simple religious in a convent in Płock, Poland.

Faustyna had about three years’ education, and served in her congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy as a cook and a gardener.

She had not even made her solemn profession in the congregation.

On the night of Sunday, February 22, 1931, Our Lord appeared to her as the King of Divine Mercy, in the image now known around the world.

 

In 1935, while Hitler was consolidating his power in Germany, Jesus appeared to Faustyna and gave her the chaplet of Divine Mercy with a three-fold purpose: to obtain mercy, to trust in Christ’s mercy and to show mercy to others.

The virtue of mercy is defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as having two aspects: affective and effective.

Affective mercy is an emotion, the pity we feel for the plight of another human being.

Affective mercy withers away when I no longer recognize the humanity of another person, and this we saw happen in an unprecedented way during WWII.

Effective mercy follows upon affective mercy; it is taking steps to relieve the suffering of another.

What is the greatest suffering we can experience?

It’s not hunger, or torture, or losing your smart phone.

It’s separation from God – because we were made to be with God.

So God’s mercy is shown most in forgiving sin, and this is an even greater work than the creation of the world, because forgiveness has eternal effects, whereas the world will pass away.

 

On the first day after the resurrection, Jesus breathes on the disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

Just as the Father breathed life into the lump of clay that would become Adam, the Risen Son breathes the love He has received from the Father and given back to the Father - into his disciples.

He breathes spiritual life into us.

And that life takes root in us as our sins are forgiven, so Jesus shares that power of forgiveness – that forgiveness that only God can give – with his disciples.

With that same breath, Jesus says, “whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

It is God Who forgives sins, because it is God who has been denied what is his: our obedience.

But Jesus wants his ministry of forgiveness to continue in the Church.

If we accept God’s grace, become humble, and repent, his will is to forgive us and show mercy.

If we do not repent, we will experience punishment because of God’s justice – perhaps eternally if we are stubborn and proud enough!

 

The chaplet Jesus gave St. Faustina is a plea for God’s mercy.

It also teaches us to trust in the mercy that is ours through Jesus Christ.

One of the prayers of the chaplet is: Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

The purpose of the Incarnation was not just for God to identify with our human condition or by sharing our pain, but to atone for our sins.

God’s justice requires that what has been broken by our sin has to be mended.

St. Thomas Aquinas says that punishment is a morally good response to sin: it is a kind of medicine for sin, and aims at the restoration of relationship between the wrongdoer and the one wronged.

We know punishment can help restore relationships – it is often when we experience the natural consequences of our sin – getting thrown in jail, or losing a fortune at the casino, or experiencing a divorce – that we turn back to God.

 

Jesus came to reconcile us to the Father through accepting the punishment that was due us because of God’s justice.

He offered on the cross his body, blood, human soul and divinity as atonement for us.

Catholic theology calls this “satisfactory punishment”, in which, St. Thomas Aquinas says, a person takes suffering upon oneself voluntarily, in order to bear another’s punishment.

The Divine Mercy chaplet is a plea for God to remember this satisfactory punishment that Jesus accepted for us – a medicinal punishment that heals our broken relationship with God.

 

Finally, the chaplet of Divine Mercy is a reminder for us to become merciful, both affectively and effectively: feeling empathy for the suffering of others and doing something about that suffering.

God says through the prophet Hosea – and Jesus quotes this – “It is mercy I desire, not sacrifice.” (Hos 6:6)

As good as prayer and worship are, without showing mercy to others, they’re worthless and hypocritical.

Mercy begins in recognizing the connection between us and others.

Some people don’t respect the humanity of an unborn child, or the mentally ill, or someone with a physical disability, or an elderly person with dementia, or a poor person, or an immigrant, or a Jew or Muslim, or a liberal or conservative.

St. Thomas said, the rich and powerful can’t imagine needing help from another, and so they are not so merciful.

 

Affective mercy makes us feel sad for the homeless man standing on the corner begging.

Effective mercy leads us to pray for him, to speak with him, to feed him, to help him find a job and housing.

Effective mercy moves us to help our classmate understand a math problem, or to work in a nursing facility.

Offering our own suffering as satisfaction for the sins of others – especially our enemies – is a great mercy that conforms us to Christ.

Helping someone encounter Christ and experience conversion is the greatest mercy humanly possible.

That is mercy with eternal consequences.

 

On the eve of some of the greatest mass atrocities in human history Jesus revealed himself to St. Faustina as King of Divine Mercy.

May we be agents of that mercy in our own age. And for the sake of his sorrowful passion, may Jesus have mercy on us and on the whole world.