Within the Church’s liturgical calendar, there are two feasts which as so integral to Christian worship that the Church attaches an Octave to them. To enter more fully into the mystery of the Incarnation, Christmas is not just celebrated as a single day, but the Church in her wisdom gives us eight full days to harvest the graces of that most solemn feast. The octave is capped off with a celebration of the first fruits of the Incarnation, the Feast of Mary Mother of God on January 1st. Along the same line, Easter is celebrated not once, but for eight consecutive days in order to bask in the glow of the Resurrected Lord and it is through a great gift from Jesus Himself that the Church also crowns and marks its first fruits of the Octave of Easter with the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday.
One of the most common things that Our Lord spoke to St. Faustina about was His desire for a great feast of mercy as it is mentioned 14 times in her Diary of Divine Mercy in My Soul. St. Faustina describes it most fully in entry 699:
My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the Fount of My Mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have
peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy.
We have talked about the significance of the “divine floodgates through which graces flow” being opened in a previous post, so we will not rehash that here. Instead, in the spirit of opening those gates even further, we will ask a seemingly small questions: Why was Jesus so insistent upon the day in which the Feast of Mercy was to be celebrated?
Why the Day Mattered to Our Lord
Returning to the parallel with the Church’s “other” octave an answer begins to emerge. In Our Lord’s mind the crown of Easter is not us going to heaven, but His mercy. In overcoming death and revealing Himself as “Lord and God” (John 20:28), He now reveals His greatest attribute. For He tells St. Faustina to “[P]roclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God” and He wants this proclamation to be forever attached to the celebration of Easter. It is His greatest attribute, because in the end, it will be the attribute that most manifests His glory to creatures.
Mercy is not just about forgiving sins, but it is much deeper than that. It is a love that not only recognizes the goodness in the other but is the cause of it. It is mercy that calls the sinner to repentance. It is mercy that takes the repentant sinner out of his nothingness and raises Him to the dignity of an adopted son of God. And it is mercy that enables the beloved disciples of Christ to remain as such. Every saint in heaven, even the purest of them, knows Mercy was the reward for those who fear God (c.f. Lk 1:50).
This connection between mercy and Easter was known from an early stage in the Church. St. Augustine, in an Easter homily, calls the Sunday of the Octave of Easter “the summary of the days of mercy.” But it is Pope St. John Paul II that made the connection most explicit during his homily for the canonization of St. Faustina on April 30, 2000. By examining the readings for what up to that point had been called the Second Sunday of Easter, he said that it was “important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church will be called ‘Divine Mercy Sunday.’” The Pope looked at the readings, especially John’s account of the first and second encounter of the Risen Jesus with the Apostles in the Upper Room and saw in it a summary of mercy.
When the Risen Christ encountered the Apostles for the first time in the Upper Room He didn’t just greet them, but because His word is performative, He gave them the gift of peace. Then He immediately gave them the capacity to spread that same gift to others by empowering them to forgive sins. In His next encounter He showed them His most Sacred Heart, the same Heart that was pierced by a lance and from which blood and water flowed forth. It is as if St. Thomas reached into the side of Jesus and brought forth the rays that we see in the sacred image. When He touched Our Lord’s heart, he believed and proclaimed “My Lord and my God.” Those of us who have not seen and still believe cry out “O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus, I trust in You!”
Summing Up the Devotion
We find the whole message of Divine Mercy summed up in the solemnity. Not only are the “blood and water which gushed forth as a fount of mercy for us” brought to mind, but in entering into the last time the Apostles were in the Upper Room with Jesus we find that the words “Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and the Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Most Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ” are also true. The celebration makes the link between Divine Mercy and the Eucharist explicit. For the Mass is the place where Christ empowered the Church to truly say those words so that each of us makes a real offering to the Father. The entire Eucharistic Prayer can be summed up “for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” This connection between Divine Mercy and the Eucharist are what ultimately make it such a powerful and true devotion, whether or not Jesus has revealed it or not.
Private Revelations play the part of the prophets of Israel. Their message is not something new, but instead are given as counter messages to the signs of the times. And the times are reading that for modern man peace has become elusive. So, in the midst of two great wars, Our Lord appeared to St. Faustina with a simple message: “Mankind will not find peace until it turns trustfully to divine mercy.” And so it is that Divine Mercy Sunday is ultimately Christ’s recipe for peace in the modern world.