Imagine that you are in St. Peter’s Square waiting your turn to see the Pope. It is mid May and the year is 1981. You see the “Pope-mobile” moving toward you. In the back is Pope John Paul II, smiling and waving. Your heart surges with joy, but all of a sudden, out of the corner of your eye, you see a flash and hear four shots ring out. The pope crumples and you are enveloped in chaos. The car with the fallen pope speeds away and nearby you see a man being tackled by a police officer, a nun and several others. In the midst of this, all you can do is lift up a desperate prayer for the holy successor of St. Peter, John Paul II, who is now fighting for his life.
On May 13, 1981, this very thing happened to Pope John Paul II. As he made his way through the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s square, Mehmet Ali Agca drew a pistol and fired four shots into him, critically wounding and nearly killing him. Imagine your own feelings toward somebody who had done this to you. I don’t know about you, but forgiveness wouldn’t be the first thing that comes to my mind. I would be angry, confused, resentful, but not forgiving. Yet, with Pope John Paul II, it was different. He may have had some of those feelings, but his actions showed that something much more powerful was at work in him.
Mehmet Agca, his would-be assassin, was immediately apprehended and sentenced to life in prison just months after the attack. But after several years, Pope John Paul II came to meet him in prison, instructing all Christians and people of good will to “pray for my brother, whom I have sincerely forgiven.” Even after suffering greatly due to the attempted assasination, Pope John Paul II had the strength to offer forgiveness and love to the man who did this to him. There is a name for this, and it is what we celebrate today: Divine Mercy.
This Feast of Divine Mercy points us to the deepest identity of God which the Church has recognized from the very beginning–that of His unquenchable love, which is able to heal and forgive even the worst sin. Mercy is that meeting between love and the suffering due to sin. So the Divine Mercy of God is that profound meeting between the sin and suffering of each and every one of us in the human family, and the infinite ocean of mercy in the Heart of the Father poured out on us through His Son on the Cross. In the depths of our sin and misery, God’s Divine Mercy calls out to each of us, inviting us to be forgiven, restored and healed.
When we look at the life of Mehmet Agca after his encounter with Pope John Paul II, we can see evidence of the healing which occured in his life. When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, Agca said, “Pope John Paul II was like a brother to me. When he died I felt as if my brother or my best friend had died.” On December 27, 2014, 31 years to the day after John Paul II visited him in jail to forgive him, even though he was barred from entering Italy, Agca snuck through the forests of Serbia, entered Hungary and then crossed over into Italy. He then made his way to the Vatican and placed a bouquet of white roses on the tomb of St. John Paul II. He said, “I felt the need to make this gesture.”
The Divine Mercy of God is a powerful thing. Even in the most extreme cases of hurt and betrayal, God can give the power for forgiveness and reconciliation. I know I cannot imagine being reconciled with someone who tried to kill me, but I know that God could bring it about. This is how the Mercy of God works! It is relentless. Even when we think something is too shameful, too big, to ugly for God to fix, He proves to us time and again that His love is greater. His Mercy can heal and restore even the deepest, darkest wounds.
Today in the Gospel we see the beautiful encounter between the Apostle Thomas and the risen Lord. Thomas is stuck in doubt about whether Jesus could actually be alive again after the horror of his brutal execution at the hands of the Romans. No doubt with the ugly images of Jesus’ broken and lifeless body still fresh in his mind, Thomas says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” His heart is hurting, confused and doubting. But God has not abandoned Him. His mercy is greater than Thomas’ doubt.
When Jesus appears, risen and alive, and encounters Thomas, what does He do? Rebuke Thomas for his lack of faith? No. He gently invites him beyond those doubts: “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” As Thomas puts his finger in the nailmarks and his hand into the hole where the soldier’s lance pierced Jesus’ side, he not only physically encounters the reality of Jesus’ Resurrection, but his doubting heart is healed. In a sense, Thomas allows his heart to enter the Sacred Wounds of Jesus along with his finger and hand. And in the protection of those Sacred Wounds, his heart is healed by the Lord’s mercy. There is no condemnation, but only overwhelming love to heal what was broken in Thomas’ heart. He was safe within the wounds of Christ and could confidently exclaim with renewed faith, “My Lord and my God!” Because of his encounter with Divine Mercy, Thomas, the doubter, became the first recorded witness to Jesus’ divinity!
Throughout the history of the Church, so many people have been changed through their encounter with the Divine Mercy. Over and over, people who have come to meet the risen Jesus with their wounds of sin have found inside His Sacred Wounds the Divine Mercy their hearts thirst for. So, brothers and sisters, on this Divine Mercy Sunday, I ask you to listen to the deepest desires of your own hearts. Wherever there is suffering within you, know that the Lord invites you to draw near to Him, to enter into His wounds and experience the amazing power of His Divine Mercy.
St. John Paul II, during his time as Pope, officially instituted this Feast Day. He did so because he knew of the importance of promoting the Divine Mercy of God in a world so scarred by sin and human suffering. St. John Paul II was inspired by the faith of a Polish nun, Sr. Faustina Kowalska, whom he canonized as a saint. Throughout her consecrated life, St. Faustina had many visions of Jesus where He spoke to her directly about His mercy. He made known to St. Faustina His desire to have a yearly Feast dedicated to Divine Mercy. That request was fulfilled by St. John Paul’s institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy for the Church in the year 2000, officially declaring the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday.
Listen to the beautiful words of St. John Paul II as he celebrated Divine Mercy Sunday in 2001:
The Heart of Christ! His “Sacred Heart” has given men everything: redemption, salvation, sanctification. St Faustina Kowalska saw coming from this Heart that was overflowing with generous love, two rays of light which illuminated the world. “The two rays”, according to what Jesus himself told her, “represent the blood and the water.” The blood recalls the sacrifice of Golgotha and the mystery of the Eucharist; the water, according to the rich symbolism of the Evangelist John, makes us think of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Through the mystery of this wounded heart, the restorative tide of God’s merciful love continues to spread over the men and women of our time. Here alone can those who long for true and lasting happiness find its secret.
So this image of Divine Mercy shows us how we encounter Jesus’ mercy through our Baptism and in the Eucharist. Through these powerful Sacraments and all of the other Sacraments, we enter the wounds of Jesus and find within them the satisfaction of our deepest longings.
By these encounters with Jesus’ mercy, we are strengthened to follow the example of St. John Paul II and countless others who allowed the Divine Mercy of God to shine through them. We can be people who enter into the Sacred Wounds of Jesus and find shelter there. In the image of Divine Mercy, Jesus’ hand points to His wounded heart. This is His invitation for all of us–to enter into His mercy and be changed by it, so that others may be changed! I pray that each time you receive the Eucharist, your heart is enveloped in His merciful heart; that each time you go to Confession, you know the mercy of Jesus pouring through the priests that continue the mission Jesus gave to His apostles in today’s Gospel to forgive sins; that each time you see a Baptism happening, you see with faith the ocean of God’s mercy being poured out to cleanse another heart and make it new; that in every encounter with Jesus’ Divine Mercy, your heart is made a channel of that mercy for others!
+ Father, thank you for the gift of mercy poured out unceasingly on us through your Son. Jesus, thank you for your Divine Mercy! We trust in You! Holy Spirit, open our hearts to the power of Jesus’ Divine Mercy today and always so that more would experience the happiness it brings! We ask this in the name of Jesus, our risen Lord. Amen. +