This is the day we celebrate God’s mercy. His mercy is infinite. His mercy is greater than sin, than evil, than suffering, than death. In His mercy, we have eternal life. For your take home message on this Divine Mercy Sunday, I invite you to remember your ABC’s. Ask for His mercy. Be merciful Completely trust in Jesus.
This Easter Day we are challenged to think differently about the blessings of our lives. I am a believer that we can find the joy of the Risen Lord in the blessings of life we enjoy on this day. Yes, our experience of Mass is only by livestream, but may our Easter blessing be that we are experiencing the Mass live streamed. Yes, we are confined to our homes, but may our Easter blessing be the gratitude that we have a home to be confined to. Yes, we can’t travel to be with extended family, but may our Easter blessing be the gratitude we have for the family we are with. Social distance does not lead us to social paranoia – fear of my brother and sister. Instead, may we be led to new forms of solidarity with one another. May our Easter faith in the presence of the Risen Christ within our hearts fill us with an Easter joy. Allow yourself to be loved by the God who goes with us in this pandemic crisis. Yes, we are looking for a vaccine to protect us from this virus, but be assured that with the eyes of faith the vaccine we most need is found in our solidarity with the Risen Lord and in our solidarity with each other as a community of faith.
Yes, there is uncertainty of how long we are going to be in isolation caused by this pandemic; Yes, we are worried about the health of those we love; yes, we may be dealing with the reality of unemployment; but when the Easter candle is lit in the deep recesses of our hearts, we can proclaim with boldness that we are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.
Yes, our life has been turned upside down by Covid-19 but as the disciples of Jesus the mission given to us by Jesus Himself has not changed. We still need to be faithful to this mission and so we ask: Will we the followers of Jesus be still willing to turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile and forgive seventy times seven times? Will we the followers of Jesus evoke from our contemporaries a comment like that was paid to our ancestors in faith: “See how they love one another.” Will our parish community be a beacon of God’s merciful love in the community of Penfield and Webster?