Divine Mercy Sunday

THE Second Sunday of Easter or the Octave of Easter is designated as Divine Mercy Sunday. The Ordo describes it as “a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that humankind will experience in the years to come.” This devotion t the Divine Mercy was promoted by St. Faustina Kowalska, canonized by St. John Paul II on April 30, 2000. 

 We all know that God’s mercy is abiding and is forever. There is nothing that can’t be tackled by it. God is not scandalized by anything. His mercy can take on anything. Not even our most grievous mistakes and most stupid blunders can frustrate it. 

 St. John Paul II once said that while our capacity to do evil can be infinite because of our spiritual nature, God’s mercy can always limit it. So, we should not be too alarmed by any evil, no matter how ugly and persistent, because God’s mercy can handle that. 

 Always given readily and in abundance, this divine mercy has to be dispensed always in the context of truth, justice and a charity, a combination that is always tricky to the human instruments through whom it is dispensed. The possibility of mishandling it is always there. 

 Let’s remember that Christ not only preached what is right and wrong, what is good and evil, but also assumed all the sinfulness of man by offering his life on the cross. He came to save, not to condemn. He was slow to anger, quick to forgive. 

 He would make use of any sign or trace of goodness, no matter how slight and mixed up with many other bad elements, to elicit a conversion. His mercy is the overflow of love that in the words of St. Paul “is patient and kind...does no insist on its own way...does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13 4-7) 

 This is the standard that any human instrument charged with dispensing divine mercy should follow. But this standard, let’s be clear about this, is not just abstract idea, a frozen theory and principle, a historical character buried in the past. This standard is a living person, always present in our lives, actively intervening and loving, and easily accessible. 

 The challenge is precisely in identifying ourselves with Christ. It’s in adopting his mind and attitudes, his skills and willingness to suffer for the sins of man. We just can’t rely on our own theories and human systems of dispensing mercy, nor on our own estimation of what is fair and just. 

 We need to enter the very mind and heart of Christ. We need to reproduce “in vivo” the very sentiments, desires and concerns of Christ in us. This is something not only possible, but is also very practicable, because the grace of God is given to us abundantly. What is simply needed is our generous and even heroic correspondence driven by faith and charity. 

 To enter into his mind and heart, we have to be willing to deny ourselves and to carry the cross, as Christ himself clearly indicated to us. A lifestyle that is alien to self-denial and sacrifice can never be welcoming to Christ and to his mercy. We would miss the true essence of divine mercy even if we can appear, by human standards, to be kind and merciful. 

 Let’s remember that it is through the cross that we can savor God’s wisdom about his infinite mercy. We would know how to weigh and assess things, make judgments, give timely counsel and effective advice to the penitents.

From the rejected stone to the cornerstone

THAT stone is, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ. He was rejected by the leading men of his time here on earth. They always tried to find fault in him. He was subjected to all kinds of suspicion. And finally, they managed to crucify him. 

 And yet Christ is actually our savior, the cornerstone that would put everything in our life together and in order. He is the stone that would give our spiritual edifice, both individually and collectively, its strength, power and effectiveness in achieving its ultimate and supernatural goal. 

 The rejection of this stone, the rejection of Christ, continues to take place today in spite of the clarity of the identity and importance of Christ in our life. Many of us continue to ignore him, to take him for granted or just to give him a pittance of importance in our life. It’s amazing indeed that in spite of our knowledge about who he really is, many of us continue to practically reject him. 

 We truly need to be wary of this tendency of ours to effectively dismiss Christ. We may profess to believe in him and to follow him, but very often this profession remains only as such. It’s hardly converted into action, much less, into our life itself. Very often, we are only good in words and intention, but not so much in deeds and lifestyle. 

 Many of us still prefer to rely on our own powers, our own fortunes and privileges, to chart whatever kind of destiny we like to pursue, as if our own lives are absolutely and solely our own. This may not be professed openly if only to be socially or politically correct. But at bottom, that is what is happening around. 

 These days, I have seen videos of how former celebrities and big names who enjoyed tremendous popularity in the past end their lives in utter misery. These videos usually have the titles of “The life and sad ending of so-and-so.” 

 While the final judgments can only belong to God, and while we should always regard these personages in charity, always keeping them in our prayers, we cannot deny that the so-called “sad ending” of their lives is mainly due to their rejection of Christ, if not openly, then practically. We should try to avoid following the same sorry trail in our life. 

 We need to change our ways. Christ is indispensable to us. He is the very pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. He is the one who will lead us to the fullness and perfection of our humanity, since as long as we are still here on earth, we are still being formed and led toward our complete identification with Christ. 

 To accept Christ in our lives, of course, requires faith, hope and charity, which are gifts given to us by God. But for these gifts to work in us, we need to be humble, to always feel that we come from God and that we belong to him. We need to follow his will. Better said, we need to make his will our will in order to seal that unity of spirit that is meant for us. 

 To accept Christ in our lives is what would actually constitute as the ultimate piety we ought to have. Our piety should not just be limited to our relation with our parents and with our other loved ones. It has to start and end with God, since without God everything would just be vanity.

From the finite to the infinite

ALL these stories about the appearances of the risen Christ to his disciples simply remind us that in spite of our limited condition here on earth, we are meant to enjoy an infinite state of life in our definitive life in heaven. And this infinite state of life is actually assured of us as long as we keep at least a shred of faith in Christ. 

 We should therefore keep this idealistic attitude toward our life in general even as we also have to be realistic about it, considering the many limitations and varying conditions that characterize our existence here on earth. In a sense, we have to be both idealistic and realistic in this life. And the secret is nothing other than to keep ourselves close to Christ, knowing, loving and serving him. 

 That’s when all the material, temporal and other negative elements in our life, like our weaknesses, mistakes and failures, our sins, etc., can enjoy the redemptive character of Christ’s mission here on earth, converting them into means of our own salvation, of our own reconciliation with God, of regaining our original dignity and identity as children of God, sharers of his divine nature and life. 

 That’s when all the perishable elements in our life can acquire an imperishable character. That’s when we can leap from the finite character of our earthly life to the infinite state of our definitive life in heaven. And this can take place as long as we see and understand things in a theological way, that is, with faith, hope and charity, and live according to it. 

 We have to cultivate this theological mind, which is actually necessary for us but which we have to do freely. Theological thinking is actually not an optional thing. With this theological thinking, we would be able to see Christ in everything. 

 This finds basis on the fact that God is everywhere. He is our creator who gives us and the whole world our existence and keeps it. With Christ who is the Son of God who became man to redeem us, God identifies with each one of us. 

 The Catechism expresses this truth in this way: “Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us...the Son of God has in a certain way united himself with each man...” (CCC 521) 

 Also with this theological thinking, we would be able to relate everything to God, as it should, regardless if in human terms it is good or bad. 

 As a creation of God, everything in the world can and should actually lead us to him. Nothing in it is non-relatable to God. Everything in it comes from him and belongs to him. There is no dead spot in it where God is absent or irrelevant. 

 Our sciences, arts and technologies can only discover the laws and the ways of nature that have been created by God. We do not create these natural laws. We just discover them and make use of them. 

 As such, we have to at least thank God for whatever usefulness we can find in the things of the world. But more than that, we should try to discern how the things of this world play in the all-embracing providence of God over his creation, since we also have a role to play in that providence. God somehow makes us as his living and loving instruments in governing the world. 

 This is how we can turn the perishable to the imperishable, enabling us leap from the finite character of our earthly life to the infinite state of definitive life in heaven.