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The Second Sunday of Easter (Year A)

On April 30, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized St. Faustina Kowalska (b. 1905; d. 1938): a Polish nun, mystic, and visionary who wrote a diary recounting her mystical experiences. This diary focuses upon the crucial theme of the abundant mercy of God in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ. In it, St. Faustina tells us of something Jesus communicated to her concerning the Second Sunday of Easter:

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 grace 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. (#699)

When Pope John Paul II canonized St. Faustina, he designated the 2nd Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday in the General Roman Calendar. In fact, he died during the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005.

It should be of no surprise to us that the liturgical readings we are fed by Mother Church on this Sunday follow the theme of the Divine Mercy. The first reading from Acts 2:42-47 tells of the communal life of the first Christian community in Jerusalem following Pentecost. They devoted themselves to doctrine, charity, liturgy, and fervent prayer (Not coincidentally, the Four Pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church): “to the teaching of the apostles, to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread, and to the prayers.” This fervent charismatic community grew in number daily: “And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” We respond to this first reading with Psalm 118, wherein we acclaim, “His mercy endures forever!” three times.

The second reading (1 Peter 1:3-9) and the Gospel (John 20:19-31) both combine the theme of the great mercy of God through the forgiveness of sins with the theme of believing although we have not personally seen the glory of the Lord as the first apostles did.

As God “breathed into [Adam’s] nostrils the breath of life and Adam became a living being” (Gen 2:7), so in the Upper Room, Jesus “breathed on [the apostles] and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained‘” (John 20:22-23). While Adam forsook the supernatural life of grace he was given by God, Jesus the New Adam abundantly bestows mercy and the divine life of the Spirit upon those reborn in him.

Today in the here and now, the Lord “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor 6:2)