Saint John Paul II instituted the feast of Divine Mercy Sunday in the year 2000. It is celebrated every year on the first Sunday after Easter, granting a Plenary Indulgence.
“On this day, the doors of my Mercy will open . . . When you confess you must know that I Myself act in the soul . . . I will grant what I am asked by those that pray the Chaplet with trust . . . the more you trust, the more you will receive. “ All of these are messages that were given to Saint Faustina Kowalska, and that in this time become more current if they so fit.
A few days ago we lived the great Mystery of the Love of God nailed on the Cross, pierced by the lance, which opened wide Christ’s Heart. A Heart so full of Love, and from which sprang that gush of infinite Mercy that floods the human being. Therefore, the hour of Mercy, the prayer of the Rosary with the Chaplet of Mercy is done at three o’clock in the afternoon, because it was the Hour of the Lord’s surrender for all of us.
The Church has always taught us that a life full of that merciful love that sprang from the Cross is made concrete in what we know as works of mercy, corporal and spiritual, which leads us Christians to have a life of prayer, made concrete in our words and deeds for our brothers.
Pope Francis says: “We always need to contemplate the mystery of Mercy.” And it is something that we must re-actualize every day in the midst of our families and our society, so marked by distrust, by cruelty against one another, by indifference in face of man’s problems . . . Mercy is a source of joy, of serenity and of peace, which leads us to the encounter with the Merciful Christ, who makes Himself present in the man walking beside us, and in living from the merciful heart of God, which is the condition for our salvation.
The Mercy of the Risen Lord is the last and supreme act with which God comes to meet us. It is the fundamental law that dwells in each person’s heart when he/she looks, from the compassion and tenderness of God to the brother we meet on the path of life.
However, to reach such a great mystery, which is revealed to us in this culminating moment of the Cross, as the concretion of the Lord’s whole life, and that we celebrate on the Sunday following Christ’s Resurrection, we cannot forget that the Eucharist is the center of true Devotion to Jesus’ Merciful Heart.
I invite you to live, constantly in your life, the Lord’s mercy, praying the Chaplet of Mercy, with contemplation of the image of Christ of Divine Mercy, with the rays that spring from His heart, the red (the blood) the white (the purifying water), but not forgetting that all this must lead us to live the works of mercy and to love and adoration of the Eucharist.
Infect yourself with God’s Mercy in your life and infect others. And always proclaim: “Jesus, I trust in You.” Happy Easter Fiftieth. We stay at the altar.
