Homily Divine Mercy Sunday 2021
Homily Divine Mercy Sunday
The church has Sundays where it dedicates itself to reflection on certain doctrines. Other Sundays we contemplate virtues. In a few weeks we will be celebrating Trinity Sunday, The Feast of Corpus Christi and Pentecost. The First Sunday of October, we reflect on the sanctity of life. The importance of the truths we commemorate is emphasized by the fact we reflect on these topics every single year. Today is called Divine Mercy Sunday, a Sunday dedicated to reflecting on God’s mercy. Divine Mercy Sunday is a rather recent idea. Pope John Paul II established this observance. Pope Benedict and Pope Francis have embraced it.
What each Pope has said is that if we want to understand what is at the core of Gospel, we must always practice mercy. We could make an argument that what led to Jesus’ execution was really a dispute over mercy. When Jesus began his public ministry, he went to the synagogue in Nazareth. He read from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. He said, “I have been anointed to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Jesus’ words sounded nice. Jesus’ fifth beatitude expresses his mission as well. He says, “Blessed are they who show mercy; mercy will be theirs.” Jesus put these words into practice in ways that shocked the self-righteous. He offered unconditional forgiveness to sinners. He didn’t wait for them to change. No, he forgave them readily. The lives of those who experienced this mercy were never the same. Jesus didn’t require that those he forgave offer sacrifices of atonement at the temple. His mercy didn’t depend on the tit for tat system that most people had been used to. Religious leaders didn’t know what to think. And they wanted Jesus stopped.
Maybe we are uncomfortable with this as well. We look at sin with the mentality that a debt must be paid. Punishment must happen. Perhaps we have a picture in our mind of the Greek goddess Themis who is often pictured as Lady Justice. Themis stands with a scale in her hand that looks like a teeter totter. Weights are in each pan of the scale to keep it in balance. One weight is justice. The other weight is mercy. We probably think that the ideal is to keep a balance between administering justice and mercy. But Jesus seemed to say that the ideal is always to give more weight to mercy than justice.
Is this what Jesus thought about sin and forgiveness? If that is what we think he taught, we can believe that sin has no consequence. We can act in an immoral way depending on the fact that forgiveness is ours. Jesus’ philosophy was probably more nuanced that that. We could think of it as more in line with a concept we seldom hear about which is the idea of restorative justice. Restorative justice does not concentrate on punishment, but it acknowledges that a reconciliation must happen when a wrong is committed.
Restorative justice is discussed more today as we see the criminal justice system continuously fail to bring healing to the world. The main example of restorative justice being put into practice in a concrete way took place in South Africa. A truth and reconciliation commission was established from 1996 to 2003 after the Apartheid System in South Africa collapsed. Apartheid was a system of segregation. When black citizens received equal rights there was a fear that retribution would take place. But leaders on both sides decided to start a commission for truth and reconciliation. The idea was that the past could not simply be forgotten, but there had to be an acknowledgement that a process for healing was needed.
Public hearings were held. Citizens who abused power could apply for amnesty for their crimes, but they had to listen to those that they had oppressed. Black citizens were able to share about the indignities they had endured with the world and were able to address those who had persecuted them in person. The idea that was behind the truth and reconciliation commission was that people of color had been wounded badly, but their oppressors had also been harmed as well for they had lost empathy over the years. Many had turned into monsters. Their humanity was compromised by what they did. When both sides heard the truth from the other a human connection was established. Many people just wanted their pain to be acknowledged. When it was, the result was often a sense that justice had been served and mercy had been felt. A confession of sin took place, forgiveness was asked for, and words of absolution were spoken.
When we listen to the Gospel story today, it is striking that the first task given to the Apostles after Jesus’ resurrection was a command to bring reconciliation to a waiting world. We are asked as followers of Jesus to learn the lesson of mercy, but to also learn the lesson of empathy. Only then can true healing happen.
Reflection Questions:
- Am I more prone to think of punishment as a way changing a sinner’s behavior? Does that always work?
- Does restorative justice sound like a workable concept? Why or why not?
Dear Parishioners,
We have made some adjustments to the Mass schedule the first two weekends of May. We were scheduled to have First Communion Masses the 2nd and 9th of May at our 11 a.m. Masses. The Mass attendance has been low during the last year because of the pandemic. But with recent inoculations many people are feeling more confident about attending Sunday Mass. There is still supposed to be a 25% capacity in the church for religious services. This means that we probably could not have everyone attend 11 a.m. Mass who might want to on the first two weeks of May. For those reasons we have added a special First Communion Mass on May 2nd and 9th at 1 p.m. This will allow the First Communicants to have a few more guests than they might have otherwise, and more people can attend our regular 11 a.m. Mass. I appreciate everyone’s cooperation with this change in plans. COVID 19 has challenged us all to be more flexible.
I would like to congratulate all those youngsters who will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation Monday night. This will be a special day in the life of our parish. I also am thankful that Bishop Tylka will be here to celebrate the sacrament. I think we all would agree that confirmation is more special when the Bishop comes to our parish and confers the sacrament here.
May Our Lady and all the Angels and Saints watch over you this week.
Fr. Mark