2nd Sunday of Easter - Year B - Divine Mercy Sunday & “The Lord Is Kind and Merciful”
In this weekend’s Gospel (Jn 20:19-31), Jesus is risen from the dead only a matter of hours (not even a whole day) and he appears to his unfaithful friends, the very ones who deserted him when he needed them the most. His first words to them are words of forgiveness, words of peace, words of mercy. No judgment. No condemnation.
Huddled in fear in this locked room are these friends of Jesus who, after the Last Supper, could not stay awake one hour to pray with him, and who ran away when the Roman guards came to arrest him; friends who spoke not a word in his defense at his trial - except for Peter who three times denied he even knew Jesus. Here are the closest disciples of Christ who were nowhere to be found when Jesus needed help carrying his cross. They were counted among the absent at the foot of the cross. They were afraid to go with the women to the tomb on Easter morning. And to such as these, Jesus offers words of forgiveness, peace and mercy. Not a word of judgment. Not a word of condemnation.
We speak of the “mystery” of God’s mercy, but I’m not sure there’s much mystery to God’s mercy at all! God is love! God is the fullness of all things bright and beautiful; all things just and true. That the risen Jesus would find it in his divine heart to forgive this unfaithful bunch doesn’t surprise me at all. What does mystify me, however, is how Jesus invites, Jesus asks, Jesus even commands us to forgive one another as fully and freely as he forgave the unfaithful apostles. Many of us spend a good part of our lives struggling to forgive someone who has hurt us deeply. Sometimes the only way we can forgive those who have hurt us is to entrust them to the mercy of God, God who has so generously forgiven us.
God is a river, an infinite ocean of mercy. The heart of Jesus is an eternal fountain of forgiveness that never stops flowing, gushing forth with mercy, mercy that has no end. Not even the greatest of our sins is powerful enough to build a dam that might hold back the waves of divine mercy pounding on the shores of our souls. God knows that we will sin and is ready to forgive our sins long before we even think of sinning. God only waits for us to claim the mercy already prepared for us and offered to us in prayer and in the sacrament of reconciliation, that we might be set free of what burdens and haunts our hearts.
In honor of Divine Mercy Sunday, we would like to share our latest video, "The Lord Is Kind and Merciful", a song based on Psalm 103 that speaks to God's mercy and love. A beautiful hymn to sing on Divine Mercy Sunday and on any weekend where the themes of God's mercy and love run through the readings or Gospel.
Video can be watched by clicking here or on the picture below:
