Jesus, God’s Mercy personified The mercy of God became a human person in Jesus Christ. As a human being we crucified and put Him to death. Yet since God’s Mercy never dies, He rose from the dead and goes on doing the Father’s will in every generation. In recent times He revealed in a special way the Father’s desire to the world through St. Faustina Kowalska. To St. Faustina Jesus said; 'Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to the Divine Mercy.'"
It is to the search for this peace that pope Francis calls the whole Church. Understanding that mercy is the single most vital ingredient for peace in a broken world, the Holy Father set aside a whole year for us to draw closer to and trust in the merciful love of the Father through His Son Jesus Christ.
Preaching in 2001 at the first celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, Blessed John Paul II, quoting from the 2nd reading, said
"Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore" (Rev 1:17-18).
He went on to say,
We heard these comforting words in the Second Reading taken from the Book of Revelation. They invite us to turn our gaze to Christ, to experience His reassuring presence. To each person, whatever his condition, even if it were the most complicated and dramatic, the Risen One repeats: "Fear not!; I died on the Cross but now I am alive for evermore"; "I am the first and the last, and the living one."
"The first," that is, the source of every being and the first-fruits of the new creation;
And speaking about the revelation of God’s Mercy to St. Faustina, Blesesed JPII said;
Indeed the message she brought is the appropriate and incisive answer that God wanted to offer to the questions and expectations of human beings in our time, marked by terrible tragedies. Jesus said to Sr. Faustina one day: "Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy" (Diary, 300). Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity in (at the dawn of) the third millennium. Turning to the gospel he said;
The Gospel, which has just been proclaimed, helps us to grasp the full sense and value of this gift. The Evangelist John makes us share in the emotion felt by the Apostles in their meeting with Christ after His Resurrection. Our attention focuses on the gesture of the Master, who transmits to the fearful, astounded disciples the mission of being ministers of Divine Mercy. He shows them His hands and His side, which bear the marks of the Passion, and tells them: "As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you" (Jn 20:21).
Immediately afterwards, "He breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained' " (Jn 20:22-23). Jesus entrusted to them the gift of "forgiving sins," a gift that flows from the wounds in His hands, His feet, and especially from His pierced side. From there a wave of mercy is poured out over all humanity.
Let us relive this moment with great spiritual intensity. Today the Lord also shows us His glorious wounds and His Heart, an inexhaustible source of light and truth, of love and forgiveness.The Heart of Christ!
His "Sacred Heart" has given men everything: redemption, salvation, sanctification. Saint Faustina Kowalska saw coming from this Heart that was overflowing with generous love, two rays of light which illuminated the world.
The two rays, [according to what Jesus Himself told her], denote blood and water (Diary, 299). The blood recalls the sacrifice of Golgotha and the mystery of the Eucharist; the water, according to the rich symbolism of the Evangelist John, makes us think of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Spirit (See Jn 3:5; 4:14).
Through the mystery of this wounded Heart, the restorative tide of God's merciful love continues to spread over the men and women of our time. Here alone can those who long for true and lasting happiness find its secret.
