Divine Mercy and Kindness
Peace peace be with you.
I remember many years ago when I was a young man in Ireland,
and my best friend and I went to an event.
It was not a party, but it was a gathering of some sort.
We were talking to another friend of mine.
My best friend had moved away and
he was questioning me about something
that he and my friend and I had done,
and I completely lied!
I blamed my best friend for what I had done that was wrong.
And just as I was in the middle of the lie,
my friend comes from behind me and looks at me.
I felt immediate shame and it overwhelmed me.
He just looked at me, never said anything
in front of my other mutual friend
and then later, he came to me.
He did not just simply say,
“I prefer when you tell the truth.
I do not like it when you lie.”
But there was nothing else.
Then just as he is walking away, he says,
“And by the way, you are a really bad liar.”
I always remember his reaction
because it was one of healing.
It was one of forgiveness, one of a second chance.
We remained best friends until
he was killed a couple months later in a plane crash.
But that moment changed me.
No matter what, it is always better to be a man of the truth,
and if you make mistakes, to tell the truth,
to hold yourself accountable to that.
It is not always easy to tell the truth
or be a person of the truth
because there is a certain amount of shame.
But believe me, there is greater shame
that comes from a lie when you do not tell the truth.
I do not know if it is ever happened to you,
when a friend catches you in a lie.
What the other person does in handling
that lie or that untruth or that betrayal,
is an inflection point in our lives.
It really is one of those those defining moments in our lives.
It can be, one way or the other.
If we are forgiven, granted mercy and a second chance,
we can go a great direction.
Another way it can rupture or break a friendship completely.
In today’s gospel, Jesus has one of
those defining moments with his disciples.
Now, remember what has happened.
Obviously, we we all know this story. Right?
But bear in mind what happened.
Jesus had just died on the cross,
brutally beaten, betrayed by these very same friends.
All of them walked away.
Peter denying him.
His closest friend denying him publicly.
Denying him publicly, and he saw it.
He gets beaten to the inches of his death,
and he is crucified and humiliated,
hung naked on a cross for all to see.
Now he is risen from the dead.
You can imagine how those same disciples feel
when they hear from the women disciples say he is alive.
They are terrified of the Jews and of him. Why?
Because they know the shame that has risen up in their hearts.
They are completely afraid of what will he do.
What will he know? That we abandoned him.
Jesus does not bring up any of that.
He simply says, “Peace be with you.
Since I forgive you, now you forgive others.”
Mercy. Defining moment for them.
It had to happen twice for them for it to sink in,
but for Thomas, once was enough.
He saw him and he believed.
Today, we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.
Saint Faustina was a great devotion of Pope John Paul II.
This Sunday was designated as Divine Mercy Sunday
because the mercy that God shows through Christ
to his closest apostles was meant to be
a hallmark for every single disciple in the world.
That we are called to come to believe in that same way.
Pope Francis, who died this week and
we celebrated this week in a very special way,
the hallmark of his entire papacy was mercy.
Mercy and hope and joy.
But mercy was his motto;
that God is merciful to us
and that we are called to be a merciful church,
a church that casts out a wide net
and leaves the door open for all to come.
He lived that day in and day out.
He lived it to the last day of his papacy,
that we are called to be a church of mercy.
He used a beautiful metaphor,
which you will remember, that of a field hospital.
We are called to not be a building like a museum,
but to be a field hospital after the wounded come back from war.
That we go out to them and we tend their wounds.
He says there is no point in asking somebody
about their blood pressure
and how much sugar do they take
when they are dying with open wounds.
We first need to tend to their open wounds.
If there is anything that we could do as a church
is to build on that legacy,
to open our doors to all without judgment,
that the doors and the Lord’s arms are thrown open wide.
It is up to you and me to bring that alive,
to live that in our lives.
So what does that come down to?
It is exactly what Jesus tells His disciples.
The Father gave me forgiveness for you.
Now you go and forgive one another.
We are called to be bearers of God is mercy in the world.
Now how does that bear out for us in our own life?
Well, we can have the doors open.
We can have signs that say, all are welcome,
and we can tell you to smile all we want,
but unless we are bearers of that mercy,
or it will be empty.
So it means for all of us
that we are called when that moment comes,
when somebody betrays us,
when somebody says something difficult and wrong of us,
that we do not take retaliation or retribution,
but we start with mercy and forgiveness and love
because that will convert them
more than any retribution ever will.
And then when somebody comes into our life
that does not follow all our norms,
that comes into our church,
that we open our heart to them and welcome them.
Not to judge them whether they are mired in divorce,
whether they are immigrants,
whether they are refugees,
or whether they are part of the LBGTQ community,
we welcome and we offer mercy to all.
And then when we live that out and
it is genuine from our heart, because why?
Because God gives it to us through Christ.
His mercy has first been given to us,
and therefore we are obliged,
commanded to pass on the mercy to others.
So today, my friends,
we live this Divine Mercy Sunday
in the in the long shadow of a great pope
who lived mercy in his own life
and welcomed all into the church.
May we follow in that example in offering mercy to all.
Peace peace be with you.