THE INFINITE MERCY OF GOD. (Homily for April 3, 2016. Divine Mercy Sunday.)


Bible Study: Acts 5, 12 to 16. Revelations 1, 9 to 19 and Mark 20, 19 to 31.


“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sin of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” In one sentence, Jesus gave his apostles the Divine Mandate to act as his intermediaries in the administration of the sacrament of Confession. By this action, Christ has not only died for our sins but made it easy for us to receive forgiveness of sins whenever we go to confession. This action is the highpoint of the display of God’s mercy upon mankind and that is why today is called the Divine Mercy Sunday.

Today we reflect on the infinite mercy of God richly displayed by Jesus Christ such that right there on the cross, Jesus prayed to the Father, “Forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” Luke 23:34. In all sincerity, I do ask myself sometimes, “If I was Jesus and people were beating me, insulting me and about to kill me, would I have the courage to pray for their forgiveness?” Today, Christ has risen from the dead, he is now above any human power and authority but instead of taking vengeance on those who killed him, he come to establish the sacrament of penance giving his disciples the power to forgive on his behalf.

For many of us, justice is only served when we have the opportunity of retaliating a wrong done and until that happens, we are usually restless. Today, Christ shows us a better path, a better route to take, a short cut to inner peace instead, that is, the path of forgiveness and mercy. Jesus does not only forgive, he also makes it so easy for us to access that forgiveness anytime we go to a priest for confession. In accessing the forgiveness of God, let us not forget that we too ought to be agents of that mercy and forgiveness by forgiving those who often offend us as well. It would be an irony if we ask for God’s forgiveness while we refuse to give out this forgiveness to our own brothers and sisters.

Sometimes because we are unable to forgive our brothers and sisters, we tend to believe that God has not or will not also forgive us easily. Again, we tend to forget that the priest is not the one forgiving our sins but God himself. It take great faith to see the face of Christ in the priest and to accept that the priest is just a physical representative of Jesus. Like Thomas, there is a tendency in us not to believe until we see. But we don’t have to base our faith only on what we see as Jesus says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” You might not have seen Jesus face to face in the confessional, but blessed are you if you are able to see him with the eyes of faith each time to go to a priest for confession.
God’s mercy has been given us freely but all it takes for us to access it is our faith. The faith to believe that by simply confessing our sins and hearing those words of absolution, the guilt is taken away, the faith to know that even though the priest is human, it is Christ himself that is hearing our confession, the faith to allow ourselves become agents of this forgiveness by replicating what Christ did on the cross for our brothers and sisters who offend us constantly. This faith is something so precious that we need to pray for it, as St. Paul says, this faith is the very victory that overcomes the world.

Mercy is an undeserved favour. And this favour is not only limited to the forgiveness of sins. For instance as we read in our first reading this morning, great signs and wonders were worked by the Apostles because despite their personal unworthiness were given the special favour of God to work such miracles. Even in the second reading, we see the mercy of God at work in the revelations given to John of which he was told to write them down.

Today we are called to dispose ourselves for God’s mercy, to ask for that mercy and be agents of mercy ourselves. By imitating the sacrifice of Jesus for us, we too can extend God’s mercy to those who may have hurt us in the past. Above all, we are called to carry out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy which in themselves are a summary of the Gospel. The corporal works of mercy are:
To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To harbour the harbourless;
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive;
To bury the dead.

While the spiritual works of mercy are:
To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offences willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.


Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, help me to be merciful like your father is merciful. Amen.


God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Sunday.

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