Abundant Pardon and Peace!
April 15, 2007

Readings for the Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday

Reading 1: Acts 5:12–16

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 118:2–4, 13–15, 22–24

Reading 2: Rev. 1:9–11a, 12–13, 17–19

Gospel: Jn. 20:19–31

Link to Readings

By Father Peter M. J. Stravinskas

The first word uttered by the Risen Christ on Easter night conveyed His special Easter gift to His Church: “Peace!” It is significant that the Lord’s commission to His apostles to forgive sins in His name immediately follows that greeting: “If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven; if you hold them bound, they are held bound.” What is the connection between the two statements?

Shalom, the Hebrew word Jesus would have used that first Easter, carries within itself so many meanings that it cannot be adequately translated by a single word. Shalom connotes wholeness, harmony, unity, peace, and right relationships. It hearkens back to the Genesis accounts that depict God and man in an intimate union of friendship and love. That union was destroyed, however, by the sin of our first parents. From that day on, sin has always obstructed the movement of the human person toward God. To find peace, the roadblock of sin must be removed. Hence, the link between the Resurrection gift of peace and the Resurrection gift of forgiveness.

That link is maintained by the Church in the Sacrament of Penance. Not without reason did many of the Fathers of the Church refer to Penance as “the second Baptism.” They saw in this sacrament the consoling possibility of returning to baptismal innocence, the ability to have a second chance if one is only willing to repent and begin again.

That reality is so important in the lives of human beings that when the great English writer and convert G. K. Chesterton was asked why he became a Catholic, he said very simply: “To get my sins forgiven!” And that remains a very powerful reason for being a part of the Catholic Church—to experience the compassion, the forgiveness, the mercy of Almighty God.

Divine Mercy

In 1905, a girl was born to a poor but devout Polish couple. As a teenager, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw. Because she was uneducated, Sister Faustina was assigned the most menial tasks. Yet in the midst of the tasks of a cook, baker, gardener, and housekeeper, the young nun underwent many mystical experiences during which Our Lord asked her to become both His apostle and His secretary—to announce anew to mankind the Gospel of God’s mercy. In one of the Lord’s messages to her, He said: “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy. . . . My daughter, be diligent in writing down every sentence I tell you concerning my mercy, because this is meant for a great number of souls who will profit from it.”

Sister Faustina was also told that the Church should celebrate a feast in honor of the divine mercy—on the Sunday after Easter. Not by accident does the Church on that day read the Gospel text that recounts Christ’s institution of the Sacrament of Penance, which is the surest and clearest sign of the divine mercy.

The young mystic likewise wrote down two prayers dictated to her by the Font of Mercy Himself. The first goes like this: “Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for my sins and those of the whole world.” The second is like it: “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on me and on the whole world.”

Our Lord promised Sister Faustina that great things would happen if people prayed this chaplet of prayers with the proper attitude: “Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he recited this chaplet only once, he will receive grace from My infinite mercy. I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those who trust in My mercy.” Indeed, the Risen Christ’s first gift to His Church was His peace, which flows from His abiding mercy. We need to reflect on that and to believe it with all our hearts, thanking God for this gift, which so many people desire and hope for but never realize is so readily available to them.

Finding Forgiveness

We know that faith, so much the focus of today’s Gospel passage, consists of far more than just believing in the existence of God. Faith requires that we act upon and live our belief by keeping God’s laws and seeking to grow ever closer to Him. Being saved is not a stagnant, once-in-a-lifetime experience, but an ongoing response to the love and will of our God.

Despite our best efforts, however, we all fall short of this ideal and lapse into sin. By giving us the Sacrament of Penance, Christ allows us to reconcile ourselves to Him continually and to grow steadily in our faith. The Church and her priests, in the name of Jesus Christ, carry our their divine commission by calling all members of the Body of Christ to repentance, reconciliation, and a more perfect union with their Savior, Jesus Christ.

If Jesus inaugurated His Resurrection appearances to His apostles with the greeting of “Peace,” we also know that He began His public ministry with the invitation, or better, the command: “Repent” (Mk. 1:15). The Sacrament of Penance is the means by which Catholics go through the process of repentance, so as to experience Christ’s peace. Or, as the confessor assures the penitent: “The Lord has freed you from your sins. Go in peace.”

Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., STD, is a member of CUF’s advisory council. He has written and edited many books, including The Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic Church and the Bible, Understanding the Sacraments, and many others. He is the founder of the Priestly Society of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, the Newman House Press, and The Catholic Response.

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