Hello friends! Tomorrow is the Second Sunday of Easter, and also known as Divine Mercy Sunday. It was a request of Our Lord to Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland, that the second Sunday after Easter be a memorial of the Lord’s infinite Divine Mercy. This has become a reality with the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, himself a native son of Poland, and is now a perpetual memorial in the Church, whereby we might reflect on the Lord’s infinite and loving Divine Mercy.

We are now in the days of Easter, the Octave of Easter culminating in this celebration of Divine Mercy. Saint Augustine of Hippo has proclaimed: "We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song." It is a time, this Easter, for great rejoicing. In our *remembering* the Lord’s resurrection, we make it a reality, just as in our *remembering* of the offering of Himself at the Last Supper, so His Body and Blood becomes a present reality. The Lord is risen as He promised, and so we cry out with full voice: "Alleluia!" Jesus’ resurrection, and also His passion and death, are immensely important to us as members of the Catholic faithful. They mean something powerful; they have implications for the way we live our lives. If we go through the faith and we miss its deeper meaning, we have done ourselves a grave injustice. For then we will have missed the entire point of why we are who we are! "We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song." Indeed, we cry out "Alleluia," for our redemption has been achieved in the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ the Lord, Christ the Merciful Savior, Christ the Faithful High Priest who intercedes for us with the Father.

Yes, this is a time for great rejoicing: our Lord has suffered and died, and now has entered into a life transformed; He has died, and now, through resurrection from the dead, He lives forever, never to die again. He has brought with Him the possibility of a great depth of mercy which is open to all who call upon His name and trust in Him as the Merciful Savior of humanity and the Redeemer of the whole world. It is this great abyss of Divine Mercy that lies open to us this day. It is an invitation into a life of grace and forgiveness of sins and into a world that brings about a flood of His mercy upon all souls who embrace Him as their Merciful Savior and the Lover of their souls.

What ought this Divine Mercy teach us? It should teach us that we can trust in God. Indeed, Jesus has taught us to pray: "Jesus, I trust in You!" God is not distant and aloof, but is very near to us, as near as our very breath. He therefore wants to be intimately involved in our life, and His will is for our good and the eternal salvation of our souls accomplished through mercy. I should teach us to embrace the Merciful Heart of the Savior of our souls, for He did not suffer and die and on the third day rise for nothing; no, but it has been accomplished for us, to bring us back to the God from whom we had wandered while we were still in our sins. It should teach us that the life of mercy is ours if we embrace His mercy; for if we embrace His mercy, it is so infinite and so unfathomable that we cannot possibly keep it to ourselves, but it must necessarily overflow into the lives of the people we meet and with whom we interact on a daily basis.
Are we a people of mercy? Has the mercy of God made us more merciful? Has it made us more patient, more willing to suffer to save those who do not know His mercy? Has it made us compassionate to the sufferings of others? Has it led us to see things differently, with eyes of mercy rather than eyes of judgment and condemnation? We pray that this may be so, for the greater glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, our Merciful Savior.

Saint James in his epistle says, "So speak and so act as people who will be judged by the law of freedom. For the judgment is merciless to one who has not shown mercy; but mercy triumphs over judgment." (James 2:12-13). These are words we need to hear, and they are essentially the words of Our Lord to Saint Faustina, that people ought not come to Him as the Just Judge (though He is this) but rather as the Merciful Savior of souls. If we approach Him expecting judgment, judgment we will most likely receive. Though if we come to Him expecting mercy, since for the sake of mercy He died, He will then show us His mercy. Let us then come to Him expecting mercy. For His passion, death, and resurrection have merited mercy on our souls, such that the Father looks upon us through the wounds of His Son (as it has been related to me).
What will this Divine Mercy Sunday mean to you? Have you reflected on the Divine Mercy of Jesus Christ? Have you given Him praise and thanksgiving for the great gift of His mercy? Or has the resurrection happened, and you missed it? Have you shut your eyes to His plan of mercy for your life? Do you trust in Him as the Merciful Savior of your soul? He is waiting, especially this Divine Mercy Sunday. He is waiting you, a sinner, to come to Him, your Savior. This is why He has entered into His life of glory: to have mercy on you and invite you into the same life. Will you accept this unfathomable grace given to you by the King of Mercy? He is waiting. Now is the time to give Him your heart and your soul, your sins and your failings, your weakness and your doubts, your successes and virtues, your love and devotion, your whole life, death, and eternity. He is waiting. Now is the time to embrace Jesus Christ, the Lord of merciful love, the Merciful Savior you has loved you enough to die for you and desired your soul enough to rise from the dead. What will you do?

May each of you have a most blessed Divine Mercy Sunday, and come to love the Lord who has loved you with the whole depth of His merciful heart. May Almighty God’s abundant blessings be upon all of you who read this, through Jesus Christ, the Merciful Savior of our souls. Amen.