Inconceivable Mercy

Second Sunday of Easter/Divine Mercy Sunday 

    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen].  In the movie, “The Princess Bride,” one of the antagonists, Vizzini, uses the word “inconceivable!” every time something happens that he can’t believe, which makes Iñigo Montoya, his erstwhile henchman, say, “You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.”
    The same could be said for the word mercy, which is a focus of today, since Pope St. John Paul II declared the Second Sunday of Easter (aka Sunday in the Octave of Easter or Low Sunday or Quasi Modo Sunday) to be Divine Mercy Sunday.  Since then, countless numbers of people have sought out the Lord’s mercy for past offenses, and have grown in their appreciation of God’s merciful love.  Indeed, our Lord promised St. Faustina: “The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion [on Divine Mercy Sunday] will obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.”  This is part of the reason Fr. Daniel LaCroix from St. John Vianney parish will be helping me hear confessions at 1:30 today.
    But to understand such a generous gift, we have to understand what mercy truly is and what it is not.  Mercy is the transforming love of God accepted by a person who knows that he has sinned.  Mercy is not license, which is the abuse of God’s mercy that presumes we can keep on sinning.  Nor does mercy ignore faults or pretend they’re not real.  A person who doesn’t think he sins has no need for mercy, because mercy is the remedy for sin, and for a person who has no sin, no mercy is necessary.
    As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph 1847, “To receive [God’s] mercy, we must admit our faults.”  It goes on to cite the first epistle of St. John, where the Beloved Disciples writes, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  In order for us to receive the great gift of God’s mercy, which is truly the Good News at its heart, we also have to be honest and recognize that we do not always live as God calls us to live.  
    Sin is death.  Sin is slavery.  Sin turns us in on ourselves.  God does not want that for any of us.  But He created us with free will that can be used well and choose Him and His way of life that leads to eternal happiness, or our free will can be used poorly and choose ourselves and Satan and eternal misery.  Because of original sin and personal sins, we worked against God and became His enemies.  But, “while we were still sinners Christ died for us,” as the Apostle says in his epistle to the Romans.  He continues, “Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.”  The Good News is that, while we chose death, and could not get out of its webs, again, quoting St. Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians, “For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in [Christ].”  God took upon Himself in Christ the punishment that we deserved, not only so that we didn’t have to face that punishment, but so that we could enjoy what God initially created us for: eternal happiness with Him in heaven.  That is mercy.  That is inconceivable!
    And God’s mercy is meant to change us, to transform us.  When we recognize just how serious sin is, and just what God went through to free us from sin, it can change our hearts, our minds, and our actions.  God’s mercy desires to give us life in place of the death of sin; give us freedom in place of the slavery of sin; and turn us towards the Father, rather than the inward-facing nature of sin.  License rejoices that sin won’t be held against me, but looks for a new opportunity to return to sin, like a clean pig returning to the mud or a dog returning to its own vomit.  
    But, struggling to accept that change is not license.  Many people get caught in sins, especially sexual sins, and while they truly repent for what they have done, and confess their sins, and open themselves up to God’s mercy, they find themselves returning to the same sinful actions, thoughts, and habits again and again.  The difference between presuming on God’s mercy and struggling to cooperate with the transformation that mercy points to is our intention and our desire: do we wish to be free and holy, or do we wish to remain slaves to sin, so long as we don’t have to suffer the consequences?

    Today we rightly celebrate God’s mercy, which is infinitely more powerful than any sin we could ever commit.  Today as St. Thomas sees and touches Christ, he is transformed from a doubter to a believer, just as when we truly encounter the mercy of God we are transformed from a sinner to a saint.  But we have to make sure we know the meaning of the word mercy in order for it to benefit us.  We cannot mistake mercy for license to sin.  God’s mercy draws us out, even if it takes some time, from the filth of sin into the purity of holiness.  Allow God’s mercy to transform you, a mercy that came at the price of the death of the Son of God, a gift of mercy that truly was “inconceivable!”  [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.]

Mercy in the Present Moment

Second Sunday of Easter/Low Sunday
    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen].  Today we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.  The paradox of mercy is that we all want it regularly accessible, but we can often struggle to actually dispense it.  When someone has wronged us, we can so easily focus on justice and how the other person should make restitution for what he or she has done.  But when we have done something wrong, how quickly do we run to God and ask for His Divine Mercy, hoping that we can obtain it without too much effort.
    Our Lord reminds us of our obligations to share with others the mercy that we receive in the parable of the unforgiving steward.  If you remember, the steward owes the master a large amount of money, and cannot pay back the debt.  When about to go to debtor’s prison, the steward pleads with the master to give him more time, and the master forgives the debt.  But when the steward sees fellow workers who owe him a much smaller amount, the steward throws them into debtor’s prison, despite them using the same plea that the steward had used earlier with the master. 
    That call to mercy reflects what God has already done for us.  His mercy, which was won at the price of the Blood of the Son of God, granted us freedom from the bonds of sin.  It released us from the hold of Satan so that we could freely continue as sons and daughters in the Son of God.  If we are adopted sons and daughters, then our vocation is to live like our heavenly Father, whose mercy endures forever, as Psalm 118 (117) states. 
    Part of living a merciful life means showing mercy to ourselves.  St. Faustina, the great apostle of Divine Mercy, once said, “The past does not belong to me; the future is not mine; with all my soul I try to make use of the present moment.”  How easy it can be to dwell on our past mistakes, or hope that we can make up for sins in the future.  Instead, God invites us live in the present moment, because that is all we have. 
    As far as the past goes, we can all say, to one degree or another, that there are things we wish we would have done differently in the past.  For some of us, that means major deviations from the type of life Christ wants us to live.  For others, that means smaller veers away from the path of holiness.  But we all have things that, in hindsight, we should not have done.  On this Divine Mercy Sunday, God invites us to commend our past to Him, and no longer be shackled by past mistakes, no matter how big or how small.  Sometimes this is done by making a general confession or life confession, where, in an appointment for confession with a priest (not at the usual weekday times), one gives all the past sins that he or she can remember to the Lord to be washed clean in His Blood.  But, aside from those rare times, we should not bring up past, confessed sins.  Because ruminating on those past sins and treating them like they still exist is lacking confidence in the power of God’s mercy.  Satan will often try to get us to act as if past confessed sins are not forgiven, but we should reject that temptation as a lie from the father of lies.  Yes, each act has a consequence, and sometimes those consequences reach into our present.  But, if we have confessed our sins, we can trust in the mercy of God and know that the sins are no more.
    As for the future, it can be easy to act like everything depends on us; that we have to do everything to save ourselves, and so we fret about what might happen.  Just as God wants us to entrust our past to Him, He also wants us to entrust our future to Him, a future that is purified by the mercy of God.  We don’t know what the future will hold.  We know that our present choices affect our future, but God can mercifully guide our future in spite of our present choices.  It is a mercy not to worry about what might happen, because we can spend so much energy and time on fretting about what could be, but what might never be. 
    As a planner and a type A personality, this is probably the hardest way for me to accept God’s mercy.  It is so easy for me to get worked up and lose sleep over how something will turn out, or if someone meant something by a particular choice of phrasing.  If, instead, I am doing my best to seek the will of God and do it, then no matter what I know God will help me through whatever consequences may come from any of my actions, good or ill.  There is a real freedom in not trying to be God and be in all the possibilities of the future.  It is part of God’s mercy that we don’t worry about what tomorrow holds.  Today, as our Lord says, has enough concern for itself.

    Mercy means living in the present, because it is all that we have, and it is the only opportunity that we have to reach out for God’s mercy, and share God’s mercy ourselves.  God’s redemption, His act of mercy, stretches into all time: past, present, and future.  But we can only accept and share that mercy in the present, because that is the only time in which we operate.  The Apostles in the Upper Room could have worried about how they had abandoned the Lord at His Passion.  Peter could have worried about how he had denied even know the Lord only a few days before.  The disciples could have wondered what this Risen Lord would do with them in the coming days, weeks, months, and years.  Thomas could have fretted not being in the Upper Room when Christ first appeared.  Instead, Christ invited them to be in the present moment, to receive His peace, a true gift of the Holy Spirit.  Instead, Christ gave His Apostles the power to extend that mercy in a formal and sacramental way so that the work of mercy, culminated in the Cross, could be accessed by generations of followers of Christ.  Christ did not encourage them to worry about the past.  He did not encourage them to plan for the future.  He only invited them to receive His peace in the present moment.
    [Mia, God’s mercy has brought you here to us as a catechumen.  Though not fully, you already belong to us by your desire for baptism.  As you continue to come to know the Lord in the coming weeks, you will see how God has worked in your past to bring you to this day, but you will also remember ways that you lived according to your ignorance of Christ and His Church.  Give that to God and His mercy, which will be poured over you in the waters of baptism.  You may worry about living as a Catholic after you are baptized, and if you will have the strength to continue in the path to which God called you.  Entrust that future to God’s mercy, and know that He will give you the strength to follow Him.]
    God wants to show us His mercy.  He wants us to share His mercy with others, but also to be receptive to His mercy ourselves.  He does not invite us to dwell on the past, nor to fret about the future.  Instead, in His mercy, He invites us to live in the present, and to be vessels and vehicles of the mercy of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.  

Three Words or Phrases

 Second Sunday of Easter
    Here’s an interesting experiment: thinking only to yourself (not out-loud), what three words would others use to describe you?  Again, this is a rhetorical question, but what words did you think others would use?  Are they different from the words that you would use to describe yourself?  Were there mostly positive or mostly negative?  
    This weekend, as we close out the Octave of Easter, there are three words that should describe every Catholic.  It may not (probably should not) be an exhaustive list, but these three words or phrases should describe every Catholic.  And these three words come from our celebration today.  Those three words or phrases are (in no particular order): a believer; concerned for others; merciful.
    The first reading, second reading, and Gospel all talk about believing.  To be a Catholic is to be a believer.  Bishop Mengeling loves to use this word.  But what do we believe?  At the heart, we believe that Jesus is who He says He is–the Son of God–and we trust in His words about how we are to live our lives.  Our belief is sometimes based upon observable realities, like St. Thomas seeing the risen Christ.  Sometimes our belief is not based on things that we can see.  But we are believers in the promises of God and the teachings of God, both as recorded in the Scriptures and as recorded in the teachings of the Magisterium, the teaching office of the Church entrusted to the Pope and the Bishops united with him on matters of faith and morals.
    Jesus claims everything in our life.  He claims our love, our obedience, our fidelity.  The only one who can do that is God.  So our belief that Jesus is God affects how we live.  If we feel that we can ignore Jesus when we disagree with Him, we’re not believers.  Fully believing in Jesus is a challenge to which maybe we don’t always live up, but it’s our goal.  It’s one thing to fail at a goal; it’s another altogether to have a different goal.  Our goal as Catholics should be to believe in Jesus, not just as a mental exercise, or a pious thought, but in ways that truly change the way we live.
    As an example of putting belief into action, our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes the first Catholics as being of one heart and one mind, not claiming any possessions as one’s own, and, in fact, selling property and putting the proceeds at the disposal of the Church for those in need.  This is where some might say, “See?!?  The first Catholics were socialists!  They owned everything in common!”  Wrong.  The first Christians weren’t socialists.  But they were concerned for others.  Rather than thinking about themselves, and because they believed in God, they thought about the needy as much or more than themselves.  And some on their own volition would decide to share what they have with the poor and live a life radically detached from ownership, relying on the each other to support themselves.  There is no evidence that the government or the Church instructed them to sell their house.  And some didn’t sell their homes, as this was where the first Christians would meet for early examples of Christian-style synagogue services, and perhaps even the Mass.  No one was compelled, but people freely gave.
    This is the witness that many of those in consecrated life still give.  They give up personal ownership of property and their own bank account to live as a brother or sister, monk or nun.  They rely on the community to care for their needs, so that they are more devoted to serving Jesus.  
    But before you sell your house to live with me in the rectory and let me take care of you with the money you donate, let me consider other ways to live as a man or woman concerned about others.  We all have a responsibility to care for ourselves and our families.  The Church teaches that the government should only get involved in providing for people’s needs where family and friends and local charities are unable.  But, while providing for our needs, we should also look to support those, to be the family and friends and local charity for those who, through no fault of their own, cannot provide for themselves.  People today are good at providing for programs.  But we are called, to the extent that we’re able, to help people out personally.  This is what Pope Francis means when he talks about serving the poor by being with them and looking into their eyes, and not simply letting an NGO (non-governmental organization) worry about the poor and needy.
  

  Lastly, the first Catholics were merciful.  Today, the Second Sunday of Easter, is also called Divine Mercy Sunday.  Pope St. John Paul II instituted this feast in order to help us all know of God’s mercy towards us.  Pope Francis declared a Year of Mercy in 2015.  The revelation to St. Thomas the Apostle of Jesus’ wounded hands, feet, and side, were really a revelation of His mercy, that He forgave us and did away with our sins when He shed His Blood on the cross.  Mercy does not pretend that a past offense did not occur.  Jesus did not pretend the wounds of His crucifixion were not there.  But rather than letting those wounds become an opportunity for vengeance on all those who led Him there, and all those who abandoned Him during His most needful hour, Jesus simply greets the apostles and disciples with the Hebrew word, “Shalom,” “Peace,” which means more than just non-conflict, but a wholeness and fullness of life.  
    Jesus earlier had told the parable of the unforgiving steward, and told us that we are to forgive as we are forgiven.  He also told us that the measure of forgiveness that we give to others is the measure that will be given to us.  Our reception of God’s mercy is the catalyst that allows us to be merciful to others, and that should most definitely be a hallmark of our life.  
    Certainly there are other aspects to being Catholic.  There are other qualities that should be present in our life.  But this week, let’s work on being a believer; concerned about others; and merciful!

"Peace" not "Really?"

Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy)

I have a niece, and another niece or nephew due to be born in mid-April.  And one of the big things for families that I have come to experience in my own family are the big firsts: the first tooth; the first crawl; the first solid food; and the first word.  There are probably countless comedic scenes about moms and dads trying to get the little child to say mama or dada first, as a sign of which parent is the best.  

So it is interesting that Jesus’ first word to His apostles after He rises from the dead, in both the Gospel according to Luke and the Gospel according to John (which we heard today) is: peace be with you, or shlama amkhon in the Aramaic Jesus would have used (a phrase which is still used in some Eastern Catholic liturgies).  After all that Jesus had gone through, and all the most of the apostles had not been through with Him, Jesus chooses to say: peace.  What a merciful response!  Even if we weren’t mad, how many of us would’ve said something like: “where were you?”; “why did you abandon me?”; or maybe just “really?”

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, we rejoice in God’s mercy, which flows from the piercèd side of Jesus.  We rejoice that Jesus, whom we have crucified with our sins, does not say, “Where were you?” or “Why did you abandon me?” or even “Really?”  Jesus gives us His peace.  

And if we rewind 6 chapters to John 14, when Jesus was speaking to the apostles, again in the upper room, on the night of His Last Supper, we hear more about that peace.  Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.”  Jesus’ peace, the peace of heart, peace of mind, is the peace that comes from God’s mercy being showered upon us.  It is not simply the worldly notion of peace: the cessation of violence.  It is a wholeness and integrity of God with us, and we with God.  It is a right ordering of our souls and minds and body, as well as with our neighbors.  

But that mercy is not something that we put in a bottle on a shelf.  It is something that is meant to be shared.  Immediately after giving the apostles His peace, Jesus also says, “‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’”  Jesus’ mercy, God’s mercy, Divine Mercy, is meant to be shared with others, just as the Father shared Jesus with us.  In fact, in encountering us, others should encounter Jesus, and His mercy, just as St. Thomas did a week after the Resurrection.

What is mercy?  Mercy is God’s love.  In Hebrew, they word chesed can be translated as mercy and as love.  The Psalm we heard today is one example of this: chi leolam chesedo: for his mercy endures forever.  It is the way God shows His love for us.  Otherwise, it would have be judgment, not mercy.  Instead, the justice of God for sin fell upon Jesus, so that we could receive the mercy of God, which is offered to us as long as we are alive.  Our sins, as St. Faustina reminded us, as a drop in the ocean of God’s mercy.

But mercy does not call wrong right, or ignore it.  Neither ignorance nor rationalization is mercy.  Instead, mercy recognizes that there is a debt to be paid, but does not demand its payment.  Mercy acknowledges that good has been rejected, but returns an embrace when a punishment could have been dealt.  

We see mercy in one of Jesus’ last acts before He died.  St. Dismas, the Good Thief, admits his sin before Jesus as they both hang on the cross.  But then asks the unthinkable: for mercy.  And Jesus responds, “‘Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’”  One of my favorite readings from the saints is from a sermon by St. Maximus of Turin, a bishop, which reads, “And so, my brothers, each of us ought surely to rejoice on this holy day.  […] Sinner he may indeed be, but he must not despair of pardon on this day which is so highly privileged; for if a thief could receive the grace of paradise, how could a Christian be refused forgiveness?”  May we never despair of God’s pardon, God’s mercy, God’s peace, but acknowledge our sins, confess them in the Sacrament of Penance, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate these sacred mysteries, in anticipation of the wedding feast of the Lamb in heaven.