A WORD FROM OUR PASTOR
Divine Mercy Sunday: The second Sunday of Easter is known as Divine Mercy Sunday: The readings for this Sunday are about God’s Divine Mercy given to us through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, our need for trusting Faith, and our need for the forgiveness of our sins. This Sunday’s Gospel vividly reminds us of how Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a sacrament of Divine Mercy. The risen Lord gave his Apostles the power to forgive sins with the words, “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain, they are retained” (Jn 20:19-23). Presenting the doubting Thomas’s famous profession of Faith, “My Lord and my God,” the Gospel illustrates how Jesus showed his mercy to the doubting apostle and emphasizes the importance of Faith for everyone. We need to accept God’s invitation to celebrate and practice mercy in our Christian lives. Through sacraments and the corporal and spiritual works of mercy that we practice mercy in our daily lives and become eligible for God's merciful judgement. St. Teresa of Calcutta presents it this way: “If we pray, we will believe; if we believe, we will love; if we love, we will serve. Only then we put our love of God into action.”
St. Faustina of Poland: She is the well-known apostle of Divine Mercy. On the 30th of April 2000, at 10:00 AM on the Second Sunday of Easter, His Holiness Pope St. John Paul II celebrated the Eucharist in Saint Peter’s Square and proceeded to the canonization of Blessed Sister Faustina. Saint Faustina invites us by the witness of her life to keep our Faith and Hope fixed on God the Father, rich in mercy, who saved us by the precious Blood of His Son. During her short life, the Lord Jesus assigned to St. Faustina three basic tasks: 1. to pray for souls, entrusting them to God’s incomprehensible Mercy; 2. to tell the world about God’s Generous Mercy; 3. to start a new movement in the Church focusing on God’s Mercy. At the canonization of St. Faustina, Pope St. John Paul II said: “The cross, even after the Resurrection of the Son of God, speaks, and never ceases to speak, of God the Father, who is faithful to His eternal love for man. … Believing in this love means believing in mercy.” “The Lord of Divine Mercy,” a drawing of Jesus based on the vision given to St. Faustina, shows Jesus raising his right hand in a gesture of blessing, with His left hand on his heart from which gush forth two rays, one red and one white. The picture contains the message, “Jesus, I trust in You!” The rays streaming out have symbolic meaning: red for the Blood of Jesus, which is the life of souls, and white for the water of Baptism which justifies souls. The whole image is symbolic of the mercy, forgiveness, and love of God.
Law v Mercy: In Reader’s Digest, Jim Williams of Montana, writes: “I was driving too fast late one night when I saw the flashing lights of a police car in my rearview mirror. As I pulled over and rolled down the window of my station wagon, I tried to dream up an excuse for my haste. But when the patrolman reached the car, he said nothing. Instead, he merely shined his flashlight in my face, then on my seven-month-old in his car seat, then on our three other children, who were asleep, and lastly on the two dogs in the very back of the car. Returning the beam of light to my face, he then uttered the only words of the encounter. ‘Son,’ he said, ‘you can’t afford a ticket. Slow down.’ And with that, he returned to his car and drove away.” Sometimes mercy triumphs over the law.
Photographer’s mercy: The story is told of a politician who, after receiving the proofs of a picture, was very angry who, after receiving the proofs of a picture, was very angry with the photographer. He stormed back to the man's studio and screamed at him: "This picture does not do me justice!" The photographer replied, "Sir, with a face like yours, what you need is mercy, not justice!"
God's blessings
Fr. Suneesh Mathew
Psalm 16: You Are My Inheritance O Lord
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