Divine Mercy Sunday Homily

18, 19 years ago, about a year or two then, into my priesthood, my aunt got sick with cancer.

It got serious fast.

And asked her if she wanted to receive the sacraments.

And she said no.

She was a Catholic, had been away from the church for many years.

I said, I understand if you don't want to come to me, but you need to go to somebody.

You need this afterwards.

She said no.

So I reached out to a priest friend of mine.

So what we do, he said, pray the chaplet of divine mercy and get all your prayer worriors on it every day.

So we got it on it.

feverishly prayed every day chaplet of divine mercy.

And hours, literally hours before my aunt died, she asked for a priest.

I've been a big believer in Divine Mercy ever since.

So this is our day.

On top of all the other mercies, God gives us.

The church celebrates Divine Mercy that Jesus brought to the modern world through St.

Faustina in Poland in the 1900s.

She was Sister Faustina.

If you've seen the image of the Sacred Heart,

The rays coming from Him, that's the vision she had, the apparition of our Lord.

And their diary recommended reading.

It's just amazing how specific Jesus gets with mercies for you and me today.

We've been talking about a lot on the Pilgrimage how to gain indulgences and graces, and you gotta do this, you gotta do that.

I know the Blessed Mother taught me yesterday, with just bow your head and you get for, you know, 40 days off Purgatory.

She wins.

Today is probably out doing her.

Just go to Mass.

On the second Sunday of Easter, which is now Divine Mercy Sunday, you can gain a plenary indulgence.

That is from the lips of Jesus Christ, myself.

So really if we question indulgences as Catholics just go to His apparition To st.

Faustina.

He gets very specific very detailed oriented because it's graces involved As you all know well now on this trip you gain the indulgence by coming to mass today

And you have seven days to do the three things.

Confession, communion, pray for the Pope.

I'll be offering confessions after this mass.

But that's one aspect of it.

Other graces that he promises, if you just meditate for two minutes on the passion of our Lord.

His passion, their tremendous graces.

To pray the Chaplet, the Novena, like we are doing in our parish leading up to this day, we have a Divine Mercy Prayer Group led by Earl Coaston in our parish.

Throughout the year, they meet.

So today is a big day, of course, they're celebrating in our parish.

Mercy means something you're getting so you don't deserve.

And that really defines our life with Jesus Christ.

We know what we deserve.

We know what justice looks like for you and me at least I do.

He got what we deserved in his passion.

And through his resurrection and the church, we get mercy.

We don't deserve any of this.

We don't deserve any of this in Jesus Christ.

in terms of the sacraments, terms of our knowledge, in terms of scripture.

And then you and I, on top of all that, get to go to this amazing pilgrimage.

We just heard that Saint Ignatius of Loyola became a pilgrim.

We can identify with him.

That was his life.

We to these awesome places and here we are today at his birthplace.

It's now a cathedral.

That's pretty cool.

The place you're born becomes a cathedral.

A Basillica

to offer mass, holy mass with the Eucharist to receive Jesus Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity.

St.

Thomas was so amazed.

Picture dropping to his knees saying, my Lord, my God, finally seeing the risen body of Christ.

we have a better Him because we get to receive.

Now, the lonely apostle, I'm sure he received the Eucharist himself.

But it's the same thing.

In fact, the church says when the Eucharist is elevated to whisper what He said, to whisper, my Lord and my God.

but on top of everything he's given us.

Confession itself, we just heard the basis for it.

He gives the apostles the power to forgive sins.

That's confession, folks.

It's right there in John 20.

20.

whose sins you forgive or forgiven them.

So they receive the power from Him to forgive sins.

They pass it on to the next priest who passed on the next priest all the way down to current priest like me.

When we do an inventory of our life with Christ, it's all mercy.

It's all mercy.

So today in the office of readings it says, forgive as you've been forgiven.

Be still mercy as you've been given mercy.

Wouldn't it be nice if people said about you and me, they come to visit our birth place one day.

She was just all about mercy.

He always forgave.

He had compassion.

He understood.

He was forgiven by God.

He forgave others and himself.

She forgave others and herself.

To receive God's mercy and also to be an instrument of His mercy and compassion and forgiveness.