Homily: 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) – Cycle B
Friends,
this weekend we celebrate the second Sunday of Easter, which is also the 8th
day of Easter, otherwise known as the octave
day. “Octave” day, because for each day
during the last week, we have been celebrating as if it is still Easter
Sunday. Hopefully, the joy you felt last
Sunday has stayed with you throughout this week and into today, because this is
what the Church truly wishes for us.
Since
the year 2000, this 8th day of Easter has been named “Divine Mercy
Sunday”: primarily in response to the instruction given by Jesus in a series of
visions to Saint Faustina in which he asked that the 2nd Sunday of
Easter be dedicated to honoring the Divine Mercy. That begs the question, of course: “What does
it mean when we say that we are ‘honoring the Divine Mercy’” as well as “What
does that look like for us?” Both our
celebration and our scriptures today answer these questions for us and so let’s
take a look at what they tell us.
First,
let’s be sure that we understand why we honor the Divine Mercy on the 2nd
Sunday of Easter. Last week, we
celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus.
This utterly strange and powerful event, in and of itself, is worthy of
solemn celebration and honor: that Jesus, the 2nd Person of the
Divine Trinity, took on human flesh, lived among us, suffered the full force of
evil-induced pain that the world can offer, and overcame it by rising from the
dead—in the same body, yes, but a body that had been transformed to be the
glorious image of humanity restored to its original splendor.
This
Sunday we celebrate an equally beautiful thing: that God’s power, as
demonstrated when Christ rose from the dead, was not just for himself—that is,
to demonstrate to us his power and so oblige us to worship him alone (although
he would be right to do that)—but that his power was for us, too. In other words, we celebrate God’s mercy:
that, through baptism, we have participation in the Resurrection: participation
in the splendor of Christ’s glorified humanity.
The fact that this celebration comes on the octave day of Easter reminds
us that these two celebrations—the Resurrection of Jesus and our participation
in it—form one complete celebration of Easter.
Therefore,
when we celebrate today, we are truly honoring the Divine Mercy in that we
honor Christ, who paid the price of God’s justice so that we could receive
forgiveness of our sins. Although throughout
the Gospels we hear that Jesus gave his disciples a share in his power to heal
the sick and drive out demons, we notice that Jesus doesn’t give them the power
to forgive sins fully until after his death and resurrection: indicating that,
in some sense, this power couldn’t be transferred until the full debt for sin
had been paid. And so, again, in
honoring Christ for his saving work we are truly honoring the Divine Mercy
which brought it about.
Now
that we’ve seen what it means to honor the Divine Mercy, we can answer the
question “What does honoring the Divine Mercy look like for us?”: that is, “How
do I honor the Divine Mercy in my everyday life?” Here we can look to the early Christian
community.
In
our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard not about Jesus’
disciples afraid and hiding in the upper room, but rather about the
post-Pentecost community proclaiming Christ openly and growing day by day. We heard how “The community of believers was
of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his
own, but they had everything in common.”
From a historical standpoint, this made sense: because the first
Christians were convinced that Jesus was going to return in their lifetime and
so began to dissociate themselves from the world so as to be ready for Christ
when he came. Now today we can look at
this in one of two ways: we can say either “Look at how the first Christians
lived! That is how we should be living!”
or we can say “That was how they were called to live at that time, but we
aren’t called to live that way in this time.”
The problem with these is that neither of these two responses is
completely right. And so, I would like
to propose a middle ground, one that demonstrates how we are to live today so
as to honor the Divine Mercy.
One
of the things that I can see in that early Christian community is how aware
they were of the Divine Mercy. Astonished
that this gift would be available to them, they quickly recognized that to have
the Divine Mercy was more important than having anything in this world. Thus, when the interpretation of Jesus’
prophecy was that he would return within their lifetime, they freely shared
everything they had with the community because their possessions had become
unimportant to them. For them, what was
most important was sharing this good news and living in immediate preparation
for Christ’s return.
We
who have received this same astonishing gift must interpret the prophecy of
Jesus’ return for our own times and respond accordingly. First, however, we must recognize the Divine
Mercy as the most valuable gift we could ever receive and, thus, prefer nothing
in this world to it. Then, like the
first Christians, we must remain vigilant for Jesus’ return: for although he
has not yet returned, nearly two thousand years after his resurrection and
ascension into heaven, he may still choose our lifetime to return. The way that we remain vigilant is by being
detached from our worldly possessions: ready to share them with others when
demanded of us; because, soon enough, we’ll take leave of them anyway.
Nonetheless,
the Father’s plan may be for Jesus not to return for another two thousand (or
more) years! Therefore, like the first
generations of Christians learned, we have to plan for our future so that, if
necessary, we can continue to proclaim this good news until the day that Christ
appears again in glory. Finding the
balance between the two is the work of our lives.
To
make this somewhat concrete for us, I’d like to use a very practical rule that
saints throughout the centuries have used, and of which 20th century
U.S. Catholic Activist Dorothy Day gave simple form. She said “If you have two coats, one of them
belongs to the poor.” As Christians, we
must not cling to the things of this world, but freely share them as a sign of
our sharing in the Divine Mercy.
Friends,
if we acknowledge the great gift that we have in the Divine Mercy—that is, the
forgiveness of sins because Jesus paid the price for us—then we must honor the
Divine Mercy by living mercy in our lives.
We do this when we lived detached from this world: providing for our
needs, yes, but then sharing freely so that others may receive what they
need. And so today, as we bask in this
celebration of God’s mercy, may the discipline of our Lenten fast, now ended,
bring about a more concrete experience of God’s mercy for all—and, thus, his
kingdom: the kingdom we experience most fully in this world, here in this
Eucharist.
Given at Saint Patrick Parish: Kokomo, IN – April 11th,
2021
Given at Pioneer Chapel, Wabash College: Crawfordsville, IN
– April 11, 2021
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