St. Mary's Church, Roslyn: Pastor's Page

Divine Mercy Sunday

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My dear people of St. Mary’s:

This weekend, the Second Sunday of Easter, the universal Catholic Church celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday. The history of the Divine Mercy Devotion and how the feast came to be is one of the most remarkable stories in the Church.

On the evening of February 22, 1931, a 25-year-old nun was praying in her cell in the convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Krakow, Poland. Her name was Helen Kowalska, though in religious life she was known as Sr. Faustina. She would later write of her experience that momentous evening:

In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord; my soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while Jesus said to me, “paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.”

Our Lord appeared to her regularly over the following seven years until her death, giving her detailed instructions about this devotion to His Divine Mercy. She kept a detailed diary of these apparitions in which she quotes Our Lord and His instructions to her at length. It is interesting that this devotion was to come into the Church and the world during one of the most unmerciful centuries in human history. Our Blessed Lord unfolded to Sr. Faustina an entire theology of mercy along with the devotion. Jesus said “I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor: the first—by deed, the second—by word, the third—by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me.”

When Sr. Faustina died on October 5, 1938, it may have seemed to her as if she had failed in her mission to be Christ’s “Apostle of Divine Mercy,” and to bring the message of this devotion to the world. But then, in 1978, a Polish pope was elected who understood the importance of this devotion to the universal Church.

In 1980 Pope Blessed John Paul II published an Encyclical Letter entitled “The Mercy of God.” Although the Holy Father did not refer to Sr. Faustina or the apparitions of the Divine Mercy in the document, he later wrote that Sr. Faustina and the devotion were very much the inspiration for the encyclical. The following year, while visiting the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy, the Pope said: “Right from the beginning of my ministry in St. Peter’s See in Rome, I considered this message [of Divine Mercy] my special task.”

Easter

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My dear people of St. Mary’s:

Today we celebrate the greatest feast in the Catholic Church’s annual liturgical calendar: the Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord, Easter Sunday. It is a day for us to remember that our entire Catholic Faith is based on the fact of the empty tomb, and the truth of the Resurrection. We live in a time that is very much impressed by advances in science and technology. This can lead some people to embrace a skepticism about things which are beyond the realm of science. And so, modern man sometimes begins to view the events of the Gospels as merely lovely stories; tales which may teach important lessons, but which are hardly to be taken as true.

But this was not the attitude of our ancestors in the Faith. The Apostles and many other martyrs of that first age of the Church gave their lives because they would not deny the fact of the Resurrection. Just such questions once arose in the early Christian community of Corinth. This prompted St. Paul to write to them to encourage them in their belief and to correct their doubts. He wrote:

Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. (1 Cor. 15:12-14)

What the Corinthians had forgotten is that the Catholic Faith is a finely constructed edifice. If we begin to pull out a brick of belief here and cast away a doctrine there, before long the entire structure will collapse in ruins. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it: “The Resurrection above all constitutes the confirmation of all Christ’s works and teachings. All truths, even those most inaccessible to human reason, find their justification if Christ, by his Resurrection, has given the definitive proof of his divine authority, which he had promised.” (CCC 651)

And so today we celebrate the fact that Our Lord suffered, died, was buried, and then rose again on the third day, as He promised. And, although we must die one day as well, He has made us a promise of a resurrection like His own. Each Easter Sunday we recall the truth of Christ’s Resurrection, and look forward to the day when we, and those we love, will experience it ourselves.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta once said: “Remember that the Passion of Christ ends always in the joy of the Resurrection of Christ, so when you feel in your own heart the suffering of Christ, remember the Resurrection has to come — the joy of Easter has to dawn. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the Risen Christ.”

I pray that you and your families will have a blessed Easter.

—Fr. McCartney