Divine Mercy… what is it? 1 In the evening of the first Easter Sunday, Jesus replies to last week’s concerns about death. He manifests Resurrection. In power that flows from the Father’s dominion over creation, Jesus passes through a locked door into the upper room. For purposes that are emphatically of the Son, He shows them hands and side, and He commissions the Apostles: “As the Father sent me, I send you.” Then, with care whose source is divine love, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into them. In mere moments, Jesus repudiates death. He moves in space and time. He displays living flesh and blood. He makes sound, he speaks aloud to all at once. And Jesus breathes. If you believe John’s testimony, then you know Jesus lives!
Then, in the mystery of Resurrection, Jesus grants the Apostles power to administer Divine Mercy, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven… whose sins you retain are retained.” We say administer because the Apostles are not the origin of Divine Mercy, they are doctors who give the medicine. But just what is it, this medicine? It is nothing less than changing the covenant of Moses. It is nothing less than tipping the scales of God’s justice.
Justice arises in the heart of creation, and its roots are much deeper than we usually consider. When wrong is done the entire cosmos is out of balance. The universe demands correction. We have an innate sense that wrongs must be made right. In the wilderness, cut off from Paradise, Adam’s descendants are vicious, brutal, and selfish. All of us sin, often without even knowing it. All must account for it. Tit for tat. Eye for eye. Tooth for tooth. Each sentence becomes an offering for the scales of justice. However hard we try, we are fallen and balance is never restored.
Isn’t the quest for worldly power largely motivated by desire to escape justice and the will to enforce it? “I want to get away with my sins, but I don’t want them to get away with theirs!” And the final justice is death. All must face this moment and become the final sacrifice. All who are born, die. They are weighed on the scales of justice and found wanting. They are lost forever. Humankind devises countless schemes, regimes, and religions in response to this power struggle. Through them we maintain a semblance of order as the people engage in all their personal power struggles while making their ways through life unto the day when death takes our measure… the end.
Only one without sin could die, submit his account, and be found innocent. Only one without sin would not be lost forever. Only one without sin would rise from the grave and continue to live after death. Jesus is that one. Further, He offered his death as a sacrifice of propitiation, atonement. He also became our thank offering. His death made it possible for those who call on him to follow him through death into the heavenly realm… His heavenly realm.
Without Resurrection, my attempt to forgive would mean little more than weakness. Failure to right the wrong. Failure to bring the cosmos into balance. It would only mean that others have to do my work. In His Resurrection, we may imitate Jesus and forgive. And our incomplete mercy is amplified and made whole by His Divine Mercy. As we imitate Christ, we are given the power through Divine Mercy to make a true difference in this world. In his image and likeness, our forgiveness through His, we embrace justice and right the wrong… our mercy in His Mercy. It is our prayer. It is our work.
“that you may believe… and believing…have life in his name” John 20:31
Everyone is invited to start by making an intention to join in prayer. We pray the Glorious Mysteries and meditate on the atonement made by Christ that in the Holy Spirit becomes Divine Mercy for us. We pray that God grant us the courage and love to forgive. We ask God to grace us with desire in our hearts to restore justice through mercy. We ask for Divine Mercy to radiate in the hearts of our family and friends, our priests and our congregation.
Saint Cecilia Congregation in the Rosary
1 God’s Divine Mercy and Resurrection are the essence of Christianity. This meditation is intended as a companion to last week’s mediation on Resurrection, which we will continue through this whole Easter season.
Duccio – Appearance Behind Locked Doors – Siena 1510
Second Sunday of Easter – Divine Mercy - John 20:19-31 – Saint Cecilia Congregation in the Rosary
All of us born into original sin are separated from God.
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Ps 51:5 RSV)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23)
Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history. CCC 386.
Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God's plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another. CCC 387.
Why does God give us freedom? So that we are capable of loving him and loving one another. Without freedom, there is no sin, but without freedom we can’t love. Freedom brings the possibility of both sin and love. The sin can destroy our capacity for love, but we are not without hope, because we have Divine Mercy.