BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL

II EASTER SUNDAY - DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY - John 20:19-31

Pope Saint John Paul II dedicated the Sunday after Easter to the celebration of the Divine Mercy. God’s mercy is bestowed on us through Jesus Christ. He offered himself in sacrifice for us - for the forgiveness of sins.  That’s why Jesus is our Saviour and Redeemer. It is through him and in him that we are reconciled with God and receive the grace that enables us to reconcile with each other. The resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee that we received mercy and have been forgiven.

Jesus entrusted his disciples with the same mission he had received from the Father. He sent them as ministers of mercy and reconciliation. And in order to enable them to carry out this ministry, he gave them the Holy Spirit, telling them:

Receive the Holy Spirit.

For those whose sins you forgive,

they are forgiven;

for those whose sins you retain,

they are retained. (Jn 20:22-23).

Jesus came to call people to repentance and to proclaim God’s mercy (Mt 4:17; Lk 4:19). The Church has been entrusted with this mission and she must be a presence of God’s mercy in the world. However, there are people in the Church who prefer to announce the wrath of God and his ready punishment to all who do not keep to all laws. It is true that we cannot take God for granted, but his loving mercy will have the last word. Even when we speak of God’s justice, we must remember that his justice is not retribution and revenge. God’s justice is the justice of a loving father, who forgets the wrongs done to him and celebrates with great joy the return of his lost children.

In the Catholic Church, in our approach to sin, we have been too legalistic, behaving like the Pharisees, always ready to condemn and to impose rules that in their harshness come from ourselves. Pope Francis has been calling the Church the be again a presence and a testimony of God’s loving mercy. We must keep the doors of the Church open to all who are searching for mercy and compassion. We must call everybody - and first of all, ourselves - to repentance and we must speak about the corruption of sin in our lives and in society, but like God, the Church must always welcome with open arms the sinners who are in need of salvation.

Experiencing God’s mercy, we learn how to be merciful.  And it is so difficult to be merciful. It is so difficult to do good to those who have done us wrong. Reconciliation is not an easy thing. But there can be no peace without reconciliation and reconciliation is impossible without forgiveness. May this Sunday of the Divine Mercy help us to experience God’s mercy to us and fill us with the Spirit of love which soothes our hearts, heals our pains and brings the joy of being merciful.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Mt 5:7).