This Second Sunday of Easter is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday. We celebrate God’s great mercy in giving us a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As today is also the day of the canonization of Pope John Paul II, I thought I’d share some of his words on divine mercy.
Making the Father present as love and mercy is, in Christ’s own consciousness, the fundamental touchstone of his mission as Messiah….
Christ proclaims by his actions even more than by his words that call to mercy which is one of the essential elements of the Gospel ethos. In this instance it is not just a case of fulfilling a commandment or an obligation of an ethical nature; it is also a case of satisfying a condition of major importance for God to reveal himself in his mercy to [humans]….
All the subtleties of love become manifest in the Lord’s mercy towards those who are his own: he is their Father…Mercy is the content of intimacy with their Lord, the content of their dialogue with him…
Mercy is in a certain sense contrasted with God’s justice, and in many cases is shown to be not only more powerful than that justice but also more profound….Love is “greater” than justice: greater in the sense that it is primary and fundamental. Love, so to speak, conditions justice and, in the final analysis, justice serves love. The primacy and superiority of love vis-a-vis justice [is] revealed precisely through mercy. This seemed so obvious to the psalmists and prophets that the very term justice ended up by meaning the salvation accomplished by the Lord and his mercy. Mercy differs from justice, but is not in opposition to it.
Blessings on this Divine Mercy Sunday on which we also celebrate the canonoizations of both Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII.
As for me, I will be leaving Christ the King Retreat House later today, filled with gratitude for all of the blessings God has bestowed upon me and the retreatants this weekend.
Creo en Dios! 