DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY YEAR C ~ APRIL 27, 2025
HOPE IN HIS DIVINE MERCY
A King sentenced two prisoners to death. One of them knew that the King loved his horse very much. As soldiers were about to take them away, the prisoner said to the king, “If my life is spared, I will teach your horse to fly in a year.” Hearing this, the king became happy thinking that he will be able to ride the only flying horse in world.
Thinking this, he spared the prisoner’s life. The other prisoner looked at him in disbelief and said, “You know that no horse can fly! You are just postponing your death sentence for a year.” The prisoner replied, “Actually I have given myself three chances at freedom. First – the king might die within year. Second is – the horse might die. And third – Maybe I can teach horse to fly.”
The message of the whole story; “One should not Lose Hope even in the Worst of situations”.
The whole season of Easter gives us the same encouragement of hope in the Divine Mercy of God by believing and trusting that nothing is impossible with him. Saint Paul rejoices in the knowledge that spiritual health has been restored to humanity. Death entered the world through Adam, he explains, but life has been given back to the world through Christ. Again, he says: The first man, being from the earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven and is heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly man, the image of human nature grown old in sin, so let us bear the image of the heavenly man: human nature raised up, redeemed, restored and purified in Christ. We must hold fast to the salvation we have received. Christ was the first fruits, says the Apostle; he is the source of resurrection and life. Those who belong to Christ will follow him. Modeling their lives on his purity, they will be secure in the hope of his resurrection and of enjoying with him the glory promised in heaven. Our Lord himself said so in the gospel: Whoever follows me will not perish but will pass from death to life. Thus, the passion of our Savior is the salvation of mankind. The reason why he desired to die for us was that he wanted us who believe in him to live for ever. In the fullness of time it was his will to become what we are, so that we might inherit the eternity he promised and live with him for ever.
Here, then, is the grace conferred by these heavenly mysteries, the gift which Easter brings, the most longed for feast of the year; here are the beginnings of creatures newly formed: children born from the life-giving font of holy Church, born anew with the simplicity of little ones, and crying out with the evidence of a clean conscience. Chaste fathers and inviolate mothers accompany this new family, countless in number, born to new life through faith. As they emerge from the grace-giving womb of the font, a blaze of candles burns brightly beneath the tree of faith. The Easter festival brings the grace of holiness from heaven to men. Through the repeated celebration of the sacred mysteries, they receive the spiritual nourishment of the sacraments. Fostered at the very heart of holy Church, the fellowship of one community worships the one God, adoring the triple name of his essential holiness, and together with the prophet sings the psalm which belongs to this yearly festival: This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. And what is this day? It is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the author of light, who brings the sunrise and the beginning of life, saying of himself: I am the light of day; whoever walks in daylight does not stumble. Whoever follows Christ in all things will come by this path to the throne of eternal light. Such was the prayer Christ made to the Father while he was still on earth: Father, I desire that where I am they also may be, those who have come to believe in me; and that as you are in me and I in you, so they may abide in us.
Once a businessman became hopeless after, his business failed. He became frustrated with life and one day while upset, he went to the forest and sat alone in the forest.
While sitting there, he thought for a long time and then said to God, “Tell me one reason why I should not despair, I lost everything, what should I do with this life? Why should I live?”
Just then he heard a voice… It was God’s voice
God said – When I first planted grass and bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. Soon grass started growing and it turned land green whereas the bamboo seed didn’t show any change. Still, I didn’t stop caring for bamboo.
In second year, grass became denser and grew more but still there was no change in bamboo seed. Even in third year, there was no result for the bamboo trees, the seeds didn’t sprout, yet I didn’t lose hope and kept watering and took care for it. Even in fourth year, there was no growth. Five years later, a small plant sprouted from the bamboo seed. It was very small compared to grass but only 6 months after, this small plant grew to 20 feet tall.
It took five years for bamboo seed to sprout. In these five years, its root became so strong that it could handle the bamboo length which was more than 20 feet high.
Always remember, whenever you must struggle in life, understand that your roots are getting stronger. Your struggle is making you stronger so that you can make tomorrow the best it can be. I didn’t give up on bamboo. I won’t give up on you and therefore you shouldn’t give up on yourself.
Time of growth for both the grass and the bamboo is different and so is their purpose. Similarly, your time will also come. Don’t be afraid of struggles in your life, this struggle will strengthen the roots of your success.
Keep going, don’t give up, if not today then tomorrow your good time will also come.
St. Augustine reflecting on the mystery of Easter says “I speak to you who have just been reborn in baptism, my little children in Christ, you who are the new offspring of the Church, gift of the Father, proof of Mother Church’s fruitfulness. All of you who stand fast in the Lord are a holy seed, a new colony of bees, the very flower of our ministry and fruit of our toil, my joy and my crown. It is the words of the Apostle that I address to you: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh and its desires, so that you may be clothed with the life of him whom you have put on in this sacrament. You have all been clothed with Christ by your baptism in him. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman; there is neither male nor female; you are all one in Christ Jesus. Such is the power of this sacrament: it is a sacrament of new life which begins here and now with the forgiveness of all past sins and will be brought to completion in the resurrection of the dead. You have been buried with Christ by baptism into death in order that, as Christ has risen from the dead, you also may walk in newness of life.
You are walking now by faith, still on a pilgrimage in a mortal body away from the Lord; but he to whom your steps are directed is himself, the sure and certain way for you: Jesus Christ, who for our sake became man. For all who fear him he has stored up abundant happiness, which he will reveal to those who hope in him, bringing it to completion when we have attained the reality which even now, we possess in hope. This is the octave day of your new birth.
Today is fulfilled in you the sign of faith that was prefigured in the Old Testament by the circumcision of the flesh on the eighth day after birth. When the Lord rose from the dead, he put off the mortality of the flesh; his risen body was still the same body, but it was no longer subject to death. By his resurrection he consecrated Sunday, or the Lord’s Day. Though the third after his passion, this day is the eighth after the Sabbath, and thus also the first day of the week. And so, your own hope of resurrection, though not yet realized, is sure and certain, because you have received the sacrament or sign of this reality and have been given the pledge of the Spirit. If then, you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory”.
Today we celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy to remind ourselves that there is hope in the Lord if we believe and trust in him. Throughout the Lenten Observances we had been reflecting on the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord so that our faith may be renewed in the Lord. On Easter Vigil we witnessed the blessing of the fire and lighting up the Paschal Candle and then we all heard about the history of Salvation through the Sacred Scripture. These celebrations always encourage us to believe that we have become new creation, and our old humanity has died. Soon after the Easter Sunday we are invited to celebrate the Divine Mercy Sunday to reflect that His Mercy is beyond comparison and his blood and the water flowing from his side makes us new creation to hope in him who doesn’t die.
Even if we go away from the Lord and are lost in our daily chores and attractions of life, his mercy never ends but works in such a mysterious way that we become new creatures in him “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. This saying is sure: “If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself” (2Timothy 2:8-13).
St. Faustina was privileged to receive apparitions from Jesus emphasizing his mercy, and especially his mercy today. In short, her mission consists in reminding us of the immemorial, but seemingly forgotten, truths of our faith about God’s merciful love for men, and in conveying to us new forms of devotion to The Divine Mercy, the practice of which is to lead to the revival of the spiritual life in the spirit of Christian trust and mercy. The Image of the Merciful Jesus. Its pattern was revealed in the vision St. Faustina had on February 22, 1931, in her convent cell at Plock. “In the evening, when I was in my cell,” she recorded in the Diary, “I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in the gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside from at breast, there were emanating two large rays, one red, the other pale. After a while, Jesus said to me, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You” (Diary, 47). “I want this image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy” (Diary, 49).
There are two primary sins that are opposed to the mercy of God: despair and presumption. Despair is the opposite of hope. In its natural form, it sees an evil as unavoidable and unconquerable. In its supernatural form, it sees damnation as unavoidable. This is a sin against the supernatural (or theological) virtue of hope. Hope is one of the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity) that we receive with the grace of baptism. Hope here is hope in God for us – the hope that God will bring us home to Himself. Yet, God may put one through a “dark night of the soul,” which St. Faustina experienced. She spoke of a soul being “drawn to God,” but at the same time feeling “…repulsed.” All other sufferings and tortures in the world are as nothing with this sensation into which it has been plunged; namely, that of being rejected by God. No one can bring it any relief; it finds itself completely alone; there is no one to defend it” (Diary, 98).
This is a trial for a holy soul. It must be distinguished from the despair experienced by a soul that has sinned much and experiences the sense of deserving damnation. St. Faustina deals with this in the “conversations with the Merciful God.” Here is the entry dealing with the despairing soul (Diary, 1486). Jesus: O soul steeped in darkness, do not despair. All is not yet lost. Come and confide in your God, who is love and mercy. But the soul, deaf even to this appeal, wraps itself in darkness. Jesus calls out again: My child, listen to the voice of your merciful Father. And the soul arises this reply: “For me there is no mercy,” and it falls into greater darkness, a despair which is a foretaste of hell and makes it unable to draw near to God. Jesus calls to the soul a third time, but the soul remains deaf and blind, hardened and despairing. Then the mercy of God begins to exert itself, and without any cooperation from the soul, God grants it final grace. If this too is spurned, God will leave the soul in this self-chosen disposition for eternity. This grace emerges from the merciful Heart of Jesus and gives the soul a special light by means of which the soul begins to understand God’s effort; but conversion depends on its own will. The soul knows that this, for her, is final grace and should it show even a flicker of good will, the mercy of God will accomplish the rest. My omnipotent mercy is active here. Happy the soul that takes advantage of this grace.
Jesus: What joy fills My Heart when you return to me. Because you are weak, I take you in My arms and carry you to the home of My Father. Soul (as if awaking, asks fearfully): Is it possible that there yet is mercy for me? Jesus: There is, My child. You have a special claim on My mercy. Let it act in your poor soul; let the rays of grace enter your soul; they bring with them light, warmth, and life. Soul: But fear fills me at the thought of my sins, and this terrible fear moves me to doubt Your goodness. Jesus: My child, all your sins have not wounded My Heart as painfully as your present lack of trust does that after so many efforts of My love and mercy, you should still doubt My goodness.
Soul: O Lord, save me yourself, for I perish. Be my Savior. O Lord, I am unable to say anything more; my pitiful heart is torn asunder; but You, O Lord… Jesus does not let the soul finish but, raising it from the ground, from the depths of its misery, He leads it into the recesses of His Heart where all its sins disappear instantly, consumed by the flames of love.
Jesus: Here, soul, are all the treasures of My Heart. Take everything you need from it. Soul: O Lord, I am inundated with Your grace. I sense that a new life has entered into me and, above all, I feel Your love in my heart. That is enough for me. O Lord, I will glorify the omnipotence of Your mercy for all eternity. Encouraged by Your goodness, I will confide to You all the sorrows of my heart.
Jesus: Tell me all, My child, hide nothing from Me, because My loving Heart, the Heart of your Best Friend, is listening to you.
Soul: O Lord, now I see all my ingratitude and Your goodness. You were pursuing me with Your grace, while I was frustrating Your benevolence. I see that I deserve the depths of hell for spurning Your graces.
Jesus (interrupting): Do not be absorbed in your misery – you are still too weak to speak of it – but, rather, gaze on My Heart filled with goodness, and be imbued with My sentiments. Strive for meekness and humility; be merciful to others, as I am to you; and, when you feel your strength failing, if you come to the fountain of mercy to fortify your soul, you will not grow weary on your journey.
Soul: Now I understand Your mercy, which protects me, and like a brilliant star, leads me into the home of my Father, protecting me from the horrors of hell that I have deserved, not once, but a thousand times. O Lord, eternity will hardly suffice for me to give due praise to Your unfathomable mercy and Your compassion for me.
St. Faustina deals with both types of despair in her Diary. The first is the feeling of being abandoned by God, and the second is the actual possibility of abandoning God. May our knowledge of God’s infinite mercy grow more and more, so that we may not be in danger of despair.
Even today when we reflect on the Gospel, there we come to know that Jesus appears to his disciples and greets them with “Peace be with you”. It shows the pure wishes of Jesus that he wants peace in the world. However sometimes we become like St. Thomas who didn’t believe but doubted in the resurrection of the Lord. Our doubt will lead us to nothing, but belief will make us to do work of mercy to the share the love of Jesus which he shared on the cross. “My daughter, if I demand through you that people revere My mercy, you should be the first to distinguish yourself by this confidence in My mercy. I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it. 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. Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be acts of mercy, and I demand the worship of My mercy through the solemn celebration of the Feast and through the veneration of the image which is painted. By means of this image I shall grant great graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of my mercy because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works”. (Diary §742).
This feast is not only a day in particular for worshipping God in His mystery of mercy, but also a time of grace for all people. The Lord Jesus said: “I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners” (Diary, 699). “Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation, that is, recourse to My Mercy. If they will not adore My mercy, they will perish for all eternity” (Diary, 965, 998).
The greatness of this feast is measured by the measure of extraordinary promises that the Lord attached to this feast: Jesus said Whoever approached the Fount of Life on this day will be granted complete remission of sins and punishment” {Diary, 300), and also, “On this day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My Mercy. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet” {Diary, 699).
To profit from those great gifts we must fulfill the conditions of the Divine Mercy devotion (trust in God’s goodness and active love toward neighbor), be in the state of sanctifying grace – having gone to Holy Confession and worthily receive Holy Communion. Jesus explained: “No soul will be justified until it turns with confidence to My mercy; and this is why the first Sunday after Easter is to be the Feast of Mercy, and on that day, priests are to tell everyone about My great and unfathomable mercy” {Diary, 570).
Jesus does the same in our weaknesses and failures, he forgives us and loves us “there is no greater to lay one’s life for other”. So today on the Feast of Divine Mercy Sunday let us ask Jesus to help us believe in him and become new creation so that we wholeheartedly say, “Jesus I trust in you”.
Do we hope in his Divine Mercy?
Other Sermons In This Series
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C ~ July 3, 2022
June 30, 2022
Holy Triduum Year A – April 6-9, 2023
April 06, 2023
1ST SUNDAY OF LENT – YEAR C ~ MARCH 9, 2025
March 06, 2025