April 19, 2020 - "Divine Mercy Sunday"

Today is the Second Sunday of Easter and also Divine Mercy Sunday.  The feast of Divine Mercy is based on the devotion to the Divine Mercy that Saint Faustina Kowalska reported as part of her encounter with Jesus.  I should mention here that these apparitions would fall under the category of private revelations.  The Church does not give any definitive teaching on the authenticity or nature of such apparitions.  But the Church does study them carefully and, if the fruits of an event breathe of the providential designs, it approves the consequent devotions.  The Bishops of the United States said in regard to certain approved Marian apparitions that these providential happenings serve as a reminder to us of basic Christian themes: prayer, penance, and the necessity of the sacraments.  This same would be true in case of these apparitions to Saint Faustina.  It would also apply to the case of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque who had a series of apparitions in the seventeenth century that were instrumental in promoting the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
 
At the bottom of the image of Divine Mercy we see words:  “Jesus, I trust in you.”  These are very important words for us to recall in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.  I listened to the Shields and Brooks report on the PBS News Hour on Good Friday.  I was really struck by a remark that David Brooks made that evening.  He said that he was focused in mental health of people after asking 6,000 readers of his column in the New York Times to report on how their health was doing.  He saw that three groups of people were suffering in particular.  The first group was that of young people who felt that their hopes and dreams were crushed.  They reported to him that they were not eating and not sleeping and were crying on the sofa.  A second group who were badly hit were senior citizens, especially widows and widowers.  They had a sense of crushing isolation.  The third group was that of people who already had mental health problems before the pandemic hit.  They were experiencing new relapses.  Once I heard this report I have been keeping young people, senior citizens, and those who live with mental health issues in my prayers.  I would hope and pray that they—indeed all of us—would remember the words that Jesus said to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary when they encountered him after they discovered the tomb was empty on that Easter morn, “Do not be afraid!”  These are two phrases that are very important at the present time:  “Jesus, I trust in you” and “Do not be afraid!”
 
In his Easter message this year Pope Francis made several points that are well worth remembering.  He recalled that Christ’s resurrection is not a “magic formula that makes problems vanish.”  Rather, “it is the victory of love over the root of evil.” Such a victory “does not ‘by-pass’ suffering, but passes through them, opening a path in the abyss, transforming good into evil.”

The Holy Father noted that this disease has not only deprived us of human closeness but also of the possibility of receiving in person the consolation that flows from the sacraments, particularly the Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation.  He added that the Lord has not left us alone.
 
Pope Francis went on to say that this was not a time for indifference, self-centeredness, division, or forgetfulness.  “Indifference, self-centeredness, division, and forgetfulness are not words we want to hear at this time,” said the Pope.  These words “seem to prevail when fear and death overwhelm us.”  He expresses the wish that we would want to ban them forever.
 
The Holy Father concluded his Urbi et Orbi message with a prayer:  “May Christ, who has already defeated death and opened for us the way to eternal salvation, dispel the darkness of our suffering humanity and lead us into the light of His glorious day.  A day that knows no end.”
 
Until next week,
Fr. John