Good afternoon. We’d like to thank you all for coming today to celebrate this important Feast Day in our Church. Before I begin my talk about St. Faustina, I’d like to include the following excerpts from a homily that Pope John Paul II said when he dedicated the Shrine of Divine Mercy near Krakow in August of 2002:
"In this shrine, I wish solemnly to entrust the world to Divine Mercy. I do so with the burning desire that the message of God's merciful love, proclaimed here through St. Faustina, may be made known to all the peoples of the earth and fill their hearts with hope."
"How greatly today's world needs God's mercy! In every continent, from the depth of human suffering, a cry of mercy seems to rise up," the Holy Father exclaimed. "Where hatred and the thirst for revenge dominate, where war brings suffering and death to the innocent, there the grace of mercy is needed in order to settle human minds and hearts and to bring about peace," the Pope continued.
"Wherever respect for life and human dignity are lacking, there is need of God's merciful love, in whose light we see the inexpressible value of every human being," he added. "Mercy is needed in order to ensure that every injustice in the world will come to an end in the splendor of truth."
At the end, the Pope quoted Jesus' words as recorded in Sister Faustina's diary: "From here, there must go forth 'the spark which will prepare the world for My final coming.'" "This spark needs to be lighted by the grace of God," the Holy Father stressed. "This fire of mercy needs to be passed on to the world. In the Mercy of God the world will find peace and mankind will find happiness!"
Many believe the Polish Pope to be the “spark from Poland” that Jesus told Saint Faustina would “prepare the world for My final coming”. Faustina was instructed by Jesus to record all of His words to her in a diary that has since been published all over the world. The name of that diary is called “Divine Mercy in My Soul."
Pope John Paul was exposed, at an early age, to the words of Jesus given to Saint Faustina when he was studying for the priesthood in an underground seminary during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. By God’s Divine Providence, the chapel, now made famous since Faustina was declared a saint, lay directly between the seminary and the labor camp where he worked to survive.
He would stop and pray there and he became knowledgeable of the contents of her diary. Decades later as the Pope recuperated in his hospital room after being shot, on May 13th 1981, he had the entire diary reread to him. Later that year while at the Shrine of Merciful Love he stated, “Right from the beginning of my ministry in St. Peter’s See in Rome, I considered this message [of Divine Mercy] my special task. Providence has assigned it to me in the present situation of man, the Church and the world. It could be said that precisely this situation assigned that message to me as my task before God.”
John Paul knew that it was surely Jesus that had instructed Faustina so well. She had less than 3 years of education, yet there is talk of declaring her a “Doctor of the Church”, an honor not held by many saints. By God’s Providence, she was canonized as the first saint of the new millennium right on Divine Mercy Sunday when John Paul II announced the institution of this new feast. Later that day he exclaimed “This is the happiest day of my life”, he had fulfilled the will of Christ!
Five years later, he would die on that feast. Everyone present with the Pope in his final moments celebrated the Feast of Divine Mercy, which Jesus promised would bring the total forgiveness of sins and punishment. Jesus made this promise with certain conditions; one must go to Confession and then receive Holy Communion on that Feast of Mercy. The Pope received those sacraments just before he died.
It was said that John Paul confessed daily, many times to brand new priests. And why not? Jesus told Faustina that He Himself is there in the confessional and the Pope believed that. The Lord said, “When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy.”
Jesus requested that the Feast of Mercy be placed on the Sunday after Easter and that is exactly where the Church put it.
Pope Benedict XVI has talked often about the importance of images and described in his book “The Spirit of the Liturgy” what the most perfect image would be to compliment the liturgy of the Mass. He perfectly described the Divine Mercy image, which has within it the Paschal Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, the sacraments (red ray: Holy Communion, pale ray: Baptism, Confession and Confirmation), and it conveys a message of hope (with the words “Jesus, I trust in You”, and serves to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Christ.
Pope John Paul had prepared a short homily from his deathbed that was to be read on Divine Mercy Sunday. It was indeed read, not by him, but by a Vatican official on that day after the Mass at St. Peter’s for the eternal repose of Pope John Paul II.
It was an urgent plea for a greater understanding of Divine Mercy and was read as follows:
As a gift to humanity, which sometimes seems bewildered and overwhelmed by the power of evil, selfishness, and fear, the Risen Lord offers His love that pardons, reconciles, and reopens hearts to love. It is a love that converts hearts and gives peace. How much the world needs to understand and accept Divine Mercy!
Lord, who reveals the Father’s love by Your death and Resurrection, we believe in You and confidently repeat to you today:
“Jesus, I trust in You, have mercy upon us and upon the whole world. Amen.”
Those who understand what Divine Mercy Sunday is all about can testify to the many dramatic conversions of hardened sinners who have confessed their sins and then received Holy Communion on that feast. Jesus didn’t only promise that souls would receive the total forgiveness of sins and punishment, He also promised to “pour out a whole ocean of graces”, which for some souls will be very tangible.
Those in the know realize what a wonderful gift this feast is to entice fallen-away Catholics to come back to the practice of their faith. On Easter the churches are always full to overflowing, but many of them will be only half-full the following Sunday. With the promises attached to this new feast, many have come back with a new fervor and a commitment to make up for lost time with good stewardship.
Pope John Paul believed in his heart what Jesus told Saint Faustina “Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy. If they will not adore My mercy, they will perish for all eternity… Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice is near.” Then Jesus said, “My heart rejoices in this feast.”
In his homily before the conclave that elected him, Pope Benedict XVI summed up John Paul’s pontificate by speaking about the late Pope’s emphasis on the Divine Mercy: “Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: Encountering Christ means encountering the mercy of God,” said Pope Benedict. “The mercy of Christ is not a cheap grace; it does not presume a trivialization of evil. Christ carries in his body and on his soul all the weight of evil, and all its destructive force. He burns and transforms evil through suffering, in the fire of his suffering love.”
He concluded last year’s Way of the Cross by saying: “The Way of the Cross is the way of mercy, the way of mercy that puts a limit on evil: This is what we learned from Pope John Paul II. It is the way of mercy; hence, the way of salvation. … Let us pray to the Lord to help us be ‘infected’ by his mercy.”
He often noted that Pope John Paul II died after Mercy Sunday Mass. And in a March 26th homily last year, Benedict said forcefully: “The Pope, in this last text which is like a testament, then added: ‘How much the world needs to understand and accept Divine Mercy!’”
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THE DIVINE MERCY
Sister Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun, who devoted her life spreading the message of Jesus’ Mercy, was canonized on Mercy Sunday - 2001, the first Saint in the new millennium. Pope John Paul II also instituted the first Sunday after Easter as the Feast of Divine Mercy. St. Faustina was born in Poland on August 25, 1905, the third of 10 children. When she was almost 20, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and was given the name Sister Maria Faustina, to which she added, “of the Most Blessed Sacrament.” Her spiritual life was based on deep humility, purity of intention and loving obedience to the Will of God in imitation of the virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her special devotion to Mary Immaculate and to the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation gave her the strength to bear all her sufferings as an offering to God on behalf of the Church and those in special need, especially great sinners and the dying.
She wrote and suffered in secret, with only her spiritual director and some of her superiors aware that anything special was taking place in her life. She began keeping a diary in 1934 in obedience to her spiritual director, and for 4 years she recorded divine revelations and mystical experiences, together with her own inmost thoughts, insights and prayers. The result is a book of some 600 printed pages recording the revelations she was receiving about God’s Mercy.
In the early 1930’s our Lord Jesus consigned to Sister Faustina the great mission to proclaim His message of mercy to the whole world. Jesus told her, “I am sending you with My Mercy to the people of the whole world. I don’t want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. You are the secretary of my Mercy, I have chosen you for that office in this and the next life.”
According to Sister Faustina’s diary, on the evening of February 22, 1931, while praying alone in her cell, Jesus appeared to her as the King of Mercy. He stood dressed in an ankle-length white garment with one hand raised in blessing. The other hand was touching His breast from which flowed forth two rays, one red and the other pale. Jesus said to her, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see with the inscription, “Jesus, I Trust In You”. I desire that this image be venerated first in your Chapel and then throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over its enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own Glory”. “I want this image which you will paint with brush to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy”. “On that day, the very depths of My Tender Mercy are open. I pour a whole ocean of graces upon souls who approach the fount of My Mercy. The souls who go to confession and receive Holy Communion should obtain complete forgiveness of their sins and punishment. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins are scarlet.”
Sister Faustina asked Jesus the meaning of the 2 rays. He said, “The rays on the picture represent the blood and water which gushed forth from the depths of My Mercy when My agonizing Heart was opened on the Cross. The pale rays symbolize the water, which justifies the soul; the red rays represent the blood, which is the life of the soul. These rays shield the soul before the wrath of My Father. Fortunate is he who lives in their shelter, for the just Hand of God will never reach him.”
Again and again our Lord came to Sister Faustina and repeated His invitation to sinners, assuring them of His open arms. On another occasion Christ complained also of our own weak, cold love and trust in Him. “Distrust of souls tears at My bosom. The lack of confidence in chosen souls hurts Me most. Despite My inexhaustible love, they do not trust Me!”
Sr. Faustina looked deep into the Merciful pierced Heart of Christ, and wrote in her diary: “The Lord permitted me to see the immensity and greatness of His Mercy. If only souls could realize how much God loves them! All comparison, no matter how strong and touching, is only a pale shadow of the reality.” Jesus confirmed her statement many times, and He pleaded for the return of sinners – great sinners. “Write, the greater the misery, the stronger the right to mercy. Summon all souls to confidence in the incomprehensible abyss of My Mercy, for I desire to save all. The well of Mercy was opened wide with a lance on the cross for all souls. I do not exclude anyone.” “I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls.”
The Chaplet of Divine Mercy was dictated to Sister Faustina by the Lord Jesus Himself on September 13-14, 1935 as a prayer of atonement and the appeasement of God’s wrath. Those who recite the Chaplet offer to God the Father “the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity,” of Jesus Christ in atonement for their sins, the sins of their loved ones and those of the entire world. By uniting themselves with the sacrifice of Jesus, they appeal to the great love that our Heavenly Father has for his Son and in Him and for all humanity. Jesus said, “Encourage souls to say the Chaplet which I have given you…Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death…when they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge, but as the Merciful Savior. Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My Infinite Mercy.” Jesus also promised to give a special Grace at death as given to St. Faustina: “My daughter, write down these words: All those souls who will glorify My mercy and spread its Worship, encouraging others to trust in My mercy, will not experience terror at the hour of death. My mercy will shield them in that final battle.
Jesus told Sister Faustina he wants people to ask for His Mercy while meditating on His Passion, particularly at the moment of agony at 3:00 p.m. everyday. If possible, he also requests that the Stations of the Cross be said or a church visit be made to adore the Blessed Sacrament. “In this hour, I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in the virtue of My Passion.” Jesus also asked that this prayer be said in preparation for the Feast – for nine days from Good Friday through the following Saturday. Besides Confession, one is to sincerely repent for his/her sins, to place their complete trust in Jesus, receive Holy Communion on the Feast Day and to venerate the Divine Mercy Image. Jesus asks that they are also to be merciful to others always and everywhere through actions and words and pray on their behalf, as well as perform at least one act of love in the course of each day. “You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it”, Christ said.
So the message of mercy is that God loves all of us, no matter how great our sins. He wants us to recognize that His Mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His Mercy and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy. It is a message we can call to mind simply by remembering, “A B C”: Ask for His Mercy; Be Merciful; and Completely Trust.
Also, on October 31, 1999, His Holiness Pope John Paul II imparted a special Apostolic Blessing to all the faithful who, during Adoration of our Most Merciful Savior, in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, will be praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the sick and for those throughout the world who will be dying in that hour. This blessing is extended in perpetuity.
