Happy 8th day within the Octave of Easter! Remember that just like Christmas, the Church, understanding that we need more than one day to celebrate if we are going to soak in the full meaning of the event we are celebrating, gives us 8 days (an octave) to celebrate Easter. True, the Easter Season lasts a full 50 days concluding with the solemnity of Pentecost, but the Octave of Easter which begins on Easter Sunday and concludes on the following Sunday is celebrated with special reverence and joy. Each day within this Octave is like a mini-Easter. We are now at that 8th day of the Octave of Easter, the Sunday following Easter Sunday. This, you may know, was declared by Pope John Paul II on April 30th, 2000 as Divine Mercy Sunday for the universal Church. This is an extraordinary day for us Catholics and for the life of the Church. Although this Sunday had already been dedicated even before Pope John Paul II’s declaration for some time in a smaller way to celebrating God’s mercy, it was particularly after the death of St. Faustina Kowalska of Poland in 1938 when a special momentum for celebrating this Sunday as Divine Mercy Sunday began to gain steam. This is because St. Faustina was privileged by God to receive extraordinary mystical experiences of Jesus appearing to her in prayer and speaking to her of His desire for the world to know and believe in His infinite Mercy. Here is a quote, for example, from St. Faustina’s diary: I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself but radiates them to other souls. (par. 1074). I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy. (par.687). The message that Jesus shared with St. Faustina is essentially the Gospel message. Yet, it helps remind us of and sheds new light on God’s mercy for us in our day and time. The Lord’s message to St. Faustina was a gift for her and, primarily so, for the Church—for all of us. One extraordinary promise the Lord told St. Faustina, and which has been validated by the Church was that on this Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday, those who receive Holy Communion in a reverent manner while being in the state of grace (having gone to confession recently) would receive not only forgiveness of their sins but also the remission of all temporal punishment due to having committed such sins! This means that if someone were to die immediately after receiving this extraordinary grace from the Lord, they would have no need for purgatory but would pass straight on to heaven. This sounds too good to be true. How can this be? Remember that it is only by cooperating with God’s grace (God’s supernatural assistance) that you and I can make amends for our past sinful ways and thereby be purged of any temporal punishment (consequences) of our sins. Well, God can choose in his mercy to “expedite” this process by pouring an overabundance of grace upon us so that our cooperating wills are more quickly (even immediately) perfectly amended, even if just momentarily. To say that our will is perfectly amended is to say that God has infused into our soul’s perfect charity toward God and neighbor. Such a soul needs no purgatory but is ready for heaven. It would be a mistake, of course, to assume that after receiving such an extraordinary grace from God on this Divine Mercy Sunday that we can become lax in our faith and moral life. Rather, the reception of such grace from God implies that we truly desire to always grow in perfect love for God and neighbor. If you notice your charity waning after today, do not be discouraged. The whole point of this Sunday is to freshly discover God’s never-failing mercy and His constant desire to grant it to us who know we need it and who ask for it.
Happy Easter and Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!!!! With fatherly love, Fr. Stiles