Don't Worry: God's Message of Mercy and Hope

 

Don’t Just Go Through the Motions

Today is an important feast day. It is Divine Mercy Sunday, and that means we have to put ourselves in the right frame of mind.

We can’t walk into Mass and treat it like routine. “Here we go again, in the name of the Father… I confess...” If today is going to have the impact it should have, then we need to remind ourselves of how we have actually relied on God’s mercy.

Even if today is a good day, we have to remember those times when we couldn’t sleep at night because of something we had done. Something we couldn’t even tell anyone.

How many of us have committed a sin? A bad one? A really, really bad one? One we couldn’t tell our mother, our father, our spouse, our closest friend? 

Today is the day to remember that feeling of hopelessness. Because today is Divine Mercy Sunday.

What the Symbols at Mass Are Telling Us

Everything at the very beginning of Mass points toward Him.

The crucifix is held high above everyone. Every person is standing, and that crucifix is higher than all of them. Why? It is a reminder that God has dominion over everything on this earth. Everything. There is no sin too big for God.

Then there is the Easter candle. Why is there no sin too big for God? Because God will consume himself to bring you light. That candle will burn bright all the way down to the ground. “It is finished. Into your hands I commend my spirit.” For whom? For you. For me.

Then he gives us his body and blood. Again, for you, for me, to save us.

In the second reading today from the letter of Saint Peter, we hear about “an indescribable and glorious joy as you attain the goal of your faith.” 

What is the goal of your faith? The salvation of your soul. Life eternal.

What Confession Actually Does

Think about what happens when you walk into confession. There is absolutely no one in this world you could ever share what you have done — out of embarrassment, out of fear. Then, in that moment, your sins are forgiven, forgotten, forever.

That is the promise Jesus made to Saint Faustina, and it is what we celebrate today.

A Small Example of What Mercy Feels Like

Here is a little example of what mercy feels like in real life.

A few days ago, a kid at the school said, “Father, I’m hungry. Do you have any food?” Now, my tendency is to say yes before thinking about it. Live your life saying yes. You can figure it later.

I said, “I can get some donuts. How many kids are in your class?”

The kid looked up at me. “Twenty-eight.”

Twenty-eight! Okay. Donut Palace, 0.8 miles away, three minutes driving, three minutes back. Done.

The donuts were purchased, put in the car, and then the car went in reverse. 

And it hit a truck.

For one second — only one second — there was a temptation. Just go! But people inside were plastered against the window. 

The car went into park. I went inside and said, “Whose truck is this? I am so sorry, I hit your truck.”

The people looked up. “Aren’t you the priest at Mary Immaculate? Father Michael?”

And then the temptation again, just for a second. “Yes, yes, Father Michael.” But no, I corrected them. “Father Alfonse.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. Come outside. I don’t even think it’s damaged.”

I was relieved. That is mercy. That is understanding. It is a small example, but when we experience it, it feels good. It genuinely feels good.

If God forgives our sins, the Lord owns us completely.

Locked Doors and the First Words Jesus Spoke

On the evening of the first day of the week, the doors were locked out of fear of the Jews. Which Jew were they afraid of? Jesus. They had good reason to be.

Peter had denied him three times. Thomas kept doubting. The rest had run away. Every single one of them had abandoned him.1

What would you expect from someone who had been betrayed like that? From people who ran, who abandoned you at the worst moment? You would expect anger. You would expect judgment.

Instead, the very first thing Jesus says is this: “Peace be with you.”

Your locked doors will never stop the Lord from entering your life. Never. When he enters, he does not come with a list of everything you did wrong. He comes with peace.

Forgiveness and Mission Go Together

Notice what comes right after the peace. Jesus says, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.”

That is not a coincidence. He forgives because he wants to send us. He wants us to do what he has done. We have a mission. We have a responsibility. We have a job to do.

We cannot walk out of here and be the same as we were before. Forgiveness and mission go together. The two are connected. You cannot separate them.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let’s remind ourselves of two things. There is no sin too big for God’s mercy and compassion. And we have a responsibility to get out there and get to work.

1

Except John (the Beloved Disciple)

Launched on Easter: How God Uses Suffering to Prepare Our Greatest Victories

 

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Bound or Free: The Difference Between Lazarus and Jesus

Think about Lazarus. He came out of the tomb still bound, still wrapped in all his bandages. That image carries something. You can be alive and still feel completely trapped by your past, by what has happened to you, by everything this world has piled onto you.

Jesus came out loose. Completely free.

A Pilot, a Slingshot, and King David

After the Easter Vigil, a three-hour ceremony that ended around one in the morning, the very first thing on the agenda when getting home was checking the news. Specifically, whether the F-15E pilot shot down over Iran had been found.

The relief was real. Both pilots were rescued. Everyone is out of Iran.

That pilot’s story is not so different from Easter Sunday. And to explain why, it helps to start with King David.

A week before Easter, an advertisement for a King David movie appeared on Netflix. The question that came up was simple: what does King David have to do with the resurrection? What do any of the figures in the Bible have to do with it?

David was a shepherd. He was the youngest child. He was, by every outward measure, a nobody. He had older brothers who were better looking, stronger, wiser. And the Lord picked him to be king.

Then consider Jesus.

• Betrayed.

• Denied three times by his closest friend.

• Arrested.

• Judged.

• Beaten and scourged.

• Crowned with thorns.

• Ridiculed and stripped.

• Put to death on a cross.

• Buried.

Before he died, he said, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Then: the resurrection. God launched him.

Suffering Is Not Punishment. It Is Fuel.

Whatever you have gone through this year, the pain, the fear, the doubt, the moments when you asked whether God still loves you or still cares, that is not punishment.

He is preparing to launch you.

He is preparing to lift you up, raise you from the dead, and send you forward. That is the pattern. It is the pattern in David’s life, in Peter’s life, in the lives of the hundred people who walked into the Church last night. Every single one of them had their own holy week before they arrived.

That is also why the crucifix matters. Some traditions prefer to skip past the suffering and focus only on the resurrection. But you cannot separate the two. The cross is the fuel. The pain and the agony are not obstacles to God’s plan. They are part of it.

When that rescued pilot gets home and holds his family, that man will be more alive than he has ever been. And here is what is important: if he ever forgets what he went through, he will lose the trajectory toward greater and greater things. The memory of the hard thing is not a burden. It is the engine.

Newton’s Third Law and the Logic of the Resurrection

This is the Third Law of Newton. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Do you think the God who created the laws of physics would apply that principle to physical objects but not to people? Of course he would. We are his creation. We are loved by him.

The chaos, the suffering, the difficulty, it all feeds an equal and opposite response. A launch.

What to Do When Things Are Good

Right now, for many people, things are going well. But good times carry their own risk. Comfort makes people weak. Unfocused. We start to slack off.

The answer is not to wait for the next hard thing. The answer is to keep challenging yourself. Set goals so difficult that people around you say you are crazy for even trying. Go after the hard things in life. Be the person God created you to be. Set a challenge so steep that only with God’s help can you clear it.

That is the fuel. That is what sets you apart.

Every Sacrament Is a Launch

In the Catholic Church, every sacrament carries this same logic.

When you are baptized, you are baptized into the death of Christ and into his resurrection. When you go to confession, remember what Peter said: “Lord, depart from me. I am a sinful man.” And what did Jesus say back? “From now on, you will be a fisher of men.”

The Lord loves to launch people. Your worst day becomes your greatest moment.

Do not be embarrassed about your past. Share it. Let people see what God does so well. He transforms lives. 

That is exactly what happened on Easter. 

That is exactly what is still happening.