DIVINE MERCY

 
DIVINE MERCY

Pope St. John Paul II designated the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday on April 30, 2000.  This was the fruit of the request of St. Faustina Kowalska (d.1938), the visionary nun who promoted devotion to the Divine Mercy.

Mercy is an important theme throughout the Bible.  There are two Hebrew terms, ḥesed and raḥămîm, which are translated into English as mercy or love.  As mercy, ḥesed is received as a gift from God.  It is not earned.  It is an essential element in any loving relationship with God, and it requires reciprocity from the one who is loved in order to bear fruit in one’s life.  God revealed this to Moses after giving him the Ten Commandments.  Exodus 34:6-7 recounts that “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy and faithfulness, keeping merciful love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty’.” 

Mercy and faithfulness go together.  Throughout the Old Testament, God reveals his mercy to his people who are often rebellious and prone to false worship.  God forgives his people time and again, even before they repent.  But for them to benefit from his mercy they must return to him, admit their guilt and unworthiness, and love him.  In view of the covenant which he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and reaffirmed on Mt. Sinai with Moses, God does not turn from his sinful people, but overlooks their sins that they may return to a loving covenant union.  This is not forced on his people, however.  They must reciprocate his love if they are to benefit from his mercy.  This must be expressed in their worship, in their relations with each other, and in their compassion towards the poor and downtrodden. 

The word raḥămîm denotes the kind of love and compassion that is expressed by a mother for her child.  It has the same root as the Hebrew word for “womb” (reḥem): “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will never forget you” (Isaiah 49:15).  Mercy and love express one reality.  The Latin word for mercy is misericordia, and in the official translations of Biblical and liturgical texts into English, the word is translated as “mercy” or as “love.”  Love = Mercy.  It is never earned but is a gracious, unmerited divine gift.

The fullness of God’s mercy is poured upon the world in the person of Jesus Christ.  The heavenly Father, who is “rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4) and who has “consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all” (Romans 11:32), has reached out to save us, according to Scripture, “not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.  The saying is sure” (Titus 3:5).

Mercy rose from the grave on Easter Sunday.  The one who fears God and turns from sin opens himself/herself to Divine Mercy.  Mercy is always there, but as St. Augustine taught, “God created us without us; but he did not will to save us without us.”  We must accept his mercy.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “To receive his mercy we must admit our faults” (#1847).  It then quotes this passage from the First Letter of John:  “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  There is nothing more wonderful than to recognize God’s infinite mercy by faith and to receive it in our hearts by humble contrition.*

*For this writing I acknowledge my dependence on the Catholic Bible Dictionary, gen. ed. Scott Hahn (Doubleday Religion).