+ Today we celebrate the conclusion of Easter Day! For eight days the church has exulted in the glow of the Resurrected Christ; for eight days the "alleluias" have resounded and the angels have sung of the power of him who is Life over the conquered one (another angel), who heralded death; for eight days believers have renewed their faith in the one source of newness of life and forgiveness of sin!: The Resurrected Jesus Christ! Last week we focused on the "newness of life."Today, we focus on "the forgiveness of sin."
The very first gift of the Risen Christ, on Easter night, as we recount in the gospel passage today, is the offering of Divine Peace, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them" Peace be with you," (this, as opposed to temporary worldly cessation of turmoil and chaos that we sometime call a "peaceful truce" or a benign period of respite in between sessions of more turmoil and chaos); the second gift is the institution of a second sacrament of the Church which would from that time onward be the dispenser of Jesus' hard-won victory of Life and Forgiveness of Sin. The distribution of Divine Mercy and Forgiveness would forever be entrusted to the priests of the Church especially in the Sacrament of Penance,: the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Sacrament of PEACE! And for those who avail themselves of this wondrous sacrament, no words can describe the PEACE (the real peace) that is experienced as a result of celebrating that sacrament.
Then he breathed on them and said to them – "Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."
What an astounding institution this sacrament is: the direct application of the Last Supper and the Brutal Death of the Lord on the Cross for us and our salvation!
The whole reason Jesus came to this earth, and was born – was to die and rise, and to breathe forth the very newness of life of God sacramentally in the church that he would found. All of the sacraments emanate from Jesus dead on the cross, with a pierced side, draining blood and water: the blood signifying the forgiveness of all sin, the water signifying the new life of baptism and all the sacraments of the church. These details are noticeable on any crucifix, and most undeniably noticeable on the painting of the Risen Christ in the form of the Divine Mercy Image that Jesus himself commissioned through the cooperation of St. Faustina Kowalska. Faustina was a Polish nun of our own life-time, who was instrumental in allowing the Risen and Ascended Lord Jesus to make his Mercy and Forgiveness known, as a relatively immediate preparation for his Second Coming.
There are three categories of persons who desperately need the divine mercy and forgiveness of Jesus to enter their lives: those who are empty and sad and know they need it; those who have absolutely no clue that they need it at all; and most importantly, those who are lukewarm: those hundreds of thousands, if not millions of persons, who know enough about God and his mercy and forgiveness to both save and condemn them – those who have the chord of truth about the matter striking deep within their hearts, along with an unfortunately louder din of "worldly wisdom," rationalization and pop psychology telling them that they really don't need any of this godly mercy and forgiveness: they can figure it all out themselves, a good self-help book or 12-step support group is really all they need to successfully navigate through life: but to what end: where will they go and what kind of life will they have when this life is over??
Yes, Jesus himself had no tolerance at all for the lukewarm.
On this Divine Mercy Sunday, as John Paul II renamed this Octave Day of Easter: let us pray for those who need a direct application of God's mercy, those who don't think they do, and most especially for those who think they are exempt: these being the most pitiable of all. Let us pray for ourselves who fall into one of these categories – more or less.
For those who wish to participate, I will lead the Divine Mercy Chaplet immediately after Mass today: a prayer formula given by Jesus himself to release the fullness of the graces of this wonderful feast! Complete changes of heart are not uncommon during the celebration of this feast in its entirety. A plenary indulgence is granted as well for those who receive communion on this feast and who make a good confession within a reasonable amount of time before or after the feast. The indulgence allows for the complete remission of all temporal punishment due to sin: in effect, it opens the gates of heaven wide for us – and keeps them open until the time that we might sin again.
This is the day the Lord has made! We continue to be glad and rejoice in it! And may the Lord in his great mercy, look kindly upon us, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life! AMEN.
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