Thank You All! Good morning to everyone! Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

Before beginning the Holy Mass, I would like to express again my thanks to so many of you who are helping us financially during these difficult times. One of the fruits of the current situation is that it is teaching us not to take for granted what we previously had, and that perhaps, we did not value. I do not want to overlook any of the "friendly hands" that have come to our rescue. I thank all of you, as pastor and on behalf of all the staff of St. Anne, for your help and for loving us so much.

Today, in a special way, I am going to express my gratitude to 4 groups of people in particular.

1. The first is represented by a woman named Nancy whose letter I want to share part of with you. On March 31, Nancy sent me a $300 check from New York. New York! Someone came to our aid from the other side of the country! How awesome! Among many other things, in her letter, she said the following,

“Fr. Sergio, my husband and I would like to offer you this small contribution to help out with the parish expenses. We so appreciate all you are doing to keep St. Anne alive during this time.

We “attend” your Masses online, as we do Adoration. The effort you are making to provide confession times is outstanding. No parish in New York seems to be providing that, at least nearby us.”

I want to thank the community of people who follow us on the Internet and who live far from Arizona. I know that there are many of you who follow us from other parts of the country and the world and we consider you active members of our community.

To those who, like Nancy, have helped us from afar with their financial aid, to those who, on this Divine Mercy Sunday, have had mercy on us, I thank you with all my heart.

2. The second group of people is represented by a parishioner from St. Anne who, on April 3, posted the following comment on Flocknote:

“My wife and I were watching the news the other day when the President announced the financial aid package and that it included money for every family in the United States. We heard that we were going to get a check for $2400. We are very fortunate that the coronavirus has not caused us any financial harm. I said to her, “What do you think we should spend it on?” Her first thought was St. Anne. We have heard Father Sergio and Deacon Andrew talk about how the plate collection is drastically down and that they are very concerned about how this will affect their ability to keep the staff employed and keep up with the daily costs that the parish still has. I know that any amount that we are able to give, is more than they have now and less than they’ll need in the future.

I would like to ask all my St. Anne family to prayerfully consider giving a portion of your check to St. Anne. I know that any amount would be greatly appreciated.

We are very blessed to have such a great group of priests, deacons and staff. It’s up to us to help our family. I pray you will."

There is little to add to these words. These parishioners are an inspiration to us all. On this Divine Mercy Sunday, to all of you who have helped us by giving part or all of the financial aid that you have received or will receive this month from the government to alleviate the consequences of the coronavirus crisis and have had mercy on us, I thank you with all my heart.

3. The third group of people are those of you who have recently contacted us to make an additional donation specifically to pay our employees' wages. I want to assure you here, publicly, that we will respect your intention and that the money that you have given us for this purpose will be used exclusively for the paychecks of our employees.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, to all those who have heard St. Anne cry for help making an offering full of sacrifice to help our employees and have had mercy on us, I thank you with all my heart.

4. Finally, I want to thank our own employees for the financial sacrifices they are making. Some are giving up their entire salary, others 80%, or 60%, or 40% of the money they earn to help other coworkers. Some are doing it with their parish salary being the only source of income for their families, which adds more merit, more glory, more beauty, to the sacrifice they are making.

Dear employees of St. Anne, you are also an inspiration for our entire community and for all of us. If it is in difficult moments when the inner quality of people is demonstrated, you are pure gold.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, to the employees of our parish who are sacrificing themselves to help the families of other coworkers, who are donating the majority of their paycheck so that St. Anne does not see herself in the sad need of having to dismiss other colleagues, you who have had mercy on your sisters and brothers in arms, I thank you with all my heart.

To all of you who are helping us, thank you from the bottom of my heart. To all who will give what they can, thank you from the bottom of my heart. We see the Providence of God come to our aid in your generous and dedicated hearts.

May Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, with our patron, St. Anne, fill you with infinite blessings in this life and with the eternal joys in eternity. Amen

II SUNDAY OF EASTER HOMILY (DIVINE MERCY)

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

We find ourselves on the second Sunday of Easter celebrating the mystery of Divine Mercy. We do so in circumstances that continue to be extraordinary, unprecedented, and in many ways disheartening. This is precisely why we need to beg for the gift of mercy on us and on the whole world with renewed intensity.

On other occasions, you have heard me quote from Pope Benedict XVI words that impressed me the first time I read them. He was commenting on today's Gospel and he manifested something that is evident, that is in full view of all, but that I had not considered with sufficient attention until now. The Holy Father said our God"is a wounded God". A God who let Himself be injured by his creatures and who, at the same time, has desired to carry those wounds into eternity. The wounds on his side, on his hands and feet that Thomas was able to touch when he saw the risen Christ, are the most admirable, most eloquent and most overwhelming testimony of Divine Mercy.

In meditating on the words of Pope Benedict, I thought: it’s true, the Lord could have been resurrected with an intact body, without any marks or scars. Christ could now be in heaven without any sign of his physical injuries, and yet he has chosen to take them with him to Paradise. Today's Gospel bears witness to these words: the Lord invites his unbelieving apostle to touch the sign of the nails with his fingers and put his hand in his side. Christ's feet are still pierced today; his hands, pierced; his Heart, opened by and for us.

The Pope concluded: "What certainty of his mercy, what consolation do his wounds mean for us!" Yes, Jesus' wounds are a great comfort because they speak to us of his mercy, which is eternal, as we proclaimed in this morning's psalm. God has let himself be wounded by us and, in the words of the prophet Isaiah and the apostle St. Peter, "His wounds have healed us." (Is 53:5; 1 Pt 2:24)

God has let himself be pierced by our faults to heal us with his wounds. At Easter, we celebrate precisely that victory of life over death and of mercy over the evil of man. "Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more," writes St. Paul. (Rom 5:20) The mercy of God is our only hope: it promises a future of holiness to those who have a past full of infidelities; it offers light to those who have dwelt in darkness; it opens the door of the Father’s house to the prodigal children who left to look for pleasures far from God; it gives breath to those who are suffocated by their vices; lifts those who are plunged into the misery of despair; it works miracles in those who want to leave the path of impiety behind and live, from now on, as children of the heavenly Father.

Therefore, in the name of all, today I beg, Lord, give us your mercy. We do not deserve it and we do not ask for it because it is owed to us. We beg for it because without it, what glimmer of hope do we have? Because, as your Word reminds us, “If you keep account of sins, Lord, who can stand?” (Ps 130.3) We know that you are not like us, that you are not mean-spirited as we are. In Sacred Scripture, you have told us that you sympathize with everyone and turn your eyes away from our sins so that we may be converted. (Wis 11:23) With all the Church we beg you this Sunday, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is Christ’s message for those who want to hear it, a message that is always necessary, always new, always alive, always relevant: God wants to be merciful. God wants to forgive you, and in today's Gospel, the Lord gives his apostles the power to do so. "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.”God has left his Heart open for us to experience his love, his forgiveness, and his grace. God enjoys forgiving and, as we have been made in his image, we must affirm with the same intensity that man enjoys being forgiven. Man needs to be forgiven. Man is dying to be forgiven. The broken pieces of our life are only put back together if we open ourselves to the forgiveness of God and others.

Today, we are all Thomas. Christ invites everyone to touch his wounds and receive his mercy. The question is, do we want to be forgiven? Do we let God be merciful to our souls? What must we do so that God is merciful to us and grants us his forgiveness?

I would say two things. First of all, we must be humble and convert. Our worst enemy is pride. If we have been like Thomas and so many times doubted the power of Christ, today let us also imitate this disciple falling at the feet of the Risen One and acknowledging him as our Lord and God. The antidote to pride is the humility with which to ask for forgiveness from those we have offended, the humility to receive the mercy of Jesus in the sacrament of penance, to accept that we have done wrong and that, with the grace of God, we want to begin again, and from now on do much better. There is mercy for the one who humbles himself, and there is condemnation for the one who rebels in his pride.

The second condition for receiving God's mercy is to be merciful to others. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." (Mt 5:7) What a great example of this we find today in the reading of the Acts of the Apostles of this Holy Mass! The first band of Christians helped each other so that no one was in need; they helped each other as children of the same Father. The good receive kindness. The just are treated with justice and the one who is merciful will be forgiven with great mercy by God.

God wants to be merciful, and because of this, all of us must practice mercy. Be very careful with the mentality of a world that does not recognize the need to ask for forgiveness and, therefore, makes itself inaccessible to the beneficial rain of God's mercy. A world where there is no forgiveness, where some condemn others, where mercy is not practiced, is a world where the healing mercy of the Lord cannot act.

For this reason, let us say with St. Faustina: “I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor.”

May our bishops be merciful and have as much mercy for the souls of their flocks as they seem to have concern for the health of their bodies. May they be living reflections of Jesus and allow the laity to touch the body of the Lord in the Eucharist as Christ let Thomas touch his wounds in the Upper Room.

May priests be merciful, so that through the Holy Spirit that they received for the forgiveness of sins, they can communicate mercy to their brothers and sisters in the sacrament of Reconciliation, always administering it with joy and generous dedication.
May the People of God be merciful and not fall into Satan's trap of reckless judgment and condemnation of his shepherds. Only Christ knows what is in the heart of each man. (Jn 2:25) Only he is the shepherd who can separate the sheep from the goats (Mt 25,31-33), who knows who is faithful and who is not, who is good and who is bad, who is worthy of glory and who deserves iniquity. “If someone complains of another, you can tell him humbly to say nothing of it to you." (St. John of the Cross)

May the Church be merciful with the world and never preach a Gospel without Jesus Christ, a Christian life without sacraments, and holiness without mercy for all.
May the world be merciful, especially with the neediest, weak and vulnerable. May unborn children be treated with mercy. May the sick and the poor be treated with mercy. May children all be loved as they deserve and may our mercy become patience, respect, courtesy, understanding, and generosity.

Finally, may God give us all, through the intercession of Mary, the gift of mercy to love as Christ loved us (Jn 13:34), to forgive as Christ forgave us (Col 3:13) and to give our lives for others, as Christ did for us. (1 Jn 2:6) Only then will we open our hearts, our families, our communities, our countries, and our world to the gift of God's mercy and be able to attain the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls. (1 Pt 1:9)