The privilege of receiving and giving mercy

Homily for 2nd Sunday of Easter Year B 2015

Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31

Introduction

This month we mark 10 years since Pope Saint John Paul II died.  One of the highlights of his teaching was reminding Catholics about the mercy of God.  He even named the second Sunday of Easter, which we celebrate today, Divine Mercy Sunday.  For belief in divine mercy is not reserved just to those who pray the Divine Mercy devotion, no more than the Holy Spirit is reserved for the Charismatic Renewal or the Blessed Mother reserved for the Legion of Mary.

And so for today’s homily, I would like to reflect on the readings through the prism of divine mercy.

Scripture and Theology

Mercy is always treating someone better than they deserve.  And surely God treats us better than we deserve in two ways: by creating us and by forgiving us.

To understand the first kind of divine mercy, think of a young man in high school.  He is unremarkable, not particularly athletic, not very good in class either, and scores average or lower on all the kinds of things young ladies would look for in a potential date.  Then out of the blue, this girl begins to show him some attention.  She is not only really beautiful, she’s also the head cheerleader and valedictorian of her class, to say nothing about all the good work she does at Church.  She is the kind of daughter every parent wants to have.  Anyway, then she asks our nondescript young man to be her date for the Prom.  Now you are probably thinking “no way this could never happen in real life.”  And perhaps some of the guys are wondering why I am talking about them.

But I am really talking about all of us; for this is exactly what God does.  He has no need of human beings, but still he creates us.  He wants to share his life with us.  This is divine mercy – this is God giving human beings more than they deserve – giving them life, his life.  We probably don’t think of God creating us as a form of divine mercy.  But if we realize that we didn’t have to exist, then we must see that our very existence is an act of mercy from God.

This first kind of divine mercy has nothing to do with sin and wrongdoing.  In the case of the high school young man, he had done nothing wrong.  The issue in his case was that he was out of her league, just by his nature.  But rather than choosing others, perhaps better and more obvious choices, she chose him.  She treated him better than he could ever imagine deserving.

In the same way, God shows us mercy by choosing human beings to be his friends.  Human beings are not in God’s league either; angels come close to it, but certainly not human beings.  But God creates us and invites us into a love relationship of friendship.

The second kind of divine mercy is when God forgives men for sinning against him.  Yes, he punished them sometimes, but way more leniently than they deserved.  The punishment for sinning against God, who is all good, is eternal separation from God.  But that is not the punishment God meted out to Adam and Eve, to Cain, to the children of Israel and subsequent generations.  In his mercy he not only forgave them, but he also sent them prophets, priests and kings, to help them get back on the right track.  Moreover, he sent his Son to be the final and lasting instrument of forgiveness and mercy.

Let’s return to our high school young man.  Let’s imagine that he actually goes to the Prom with his unlikely date.  And then by some unimaginable miracle, they actually fall in love and get married.  We would all agree that this young man is lucky; he has won the jackpot.

Unfortunately, after they have been married for a couple of years, he begins to take her for granted; he begins to forget how lucky he is.  And then this knucklehead does something really stupid; he cheats on his wife.

Fortunately for him, after some soul-searching and agonizing, and prayerful reflection, she forgives him.  She treats him better than he deserves, much better than he deserves.  Remember that she is a truly good woman.  If dating him in the first place was an act of mercy because he was out of her league, now forgiving him for his infidelity and taking him back is an act of mercy because he has received a lesser punishment.

And so the second kind of mercy from God is given no longer because humans are of a lower nature, but now also because human beings are sinful.  This is the kind of mercy that admits us back into God’s good graces.  This is the mercy which the resurrection of Jesus brings about for us.  This is the kind of mercy we seek when we go to the sacrament of confession, the fountain of divine mercy.  This is the kind of mercy we proclaim throughout the Mass when we say, “Lord Have Mercy, Christ Have Mercy, Lord Have Mercy.”

Christian Life

How do we respond to receiving divine mercy?  Jesus tells us in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”  And elsewhere he gives a direct instruction: “Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:36).

Of course we show mercy to others by forgiving those who sin against us.  Jesus told Peter to forgive a brother who sins against him, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times, which as a figure of speech means forgiving always.  Such mercy is not always easy to give.  But while we can have justifiable anger when we are hurt, we cannot let that anger fester into hate for the sinner.

When Pope John Paul II visited in prison, the man who shot him, he showed us how to forgive and how to share God’s mercy with others.  We don’t know what they spoke about, but the pope probably said: “I forgive you.”  Yes, the man still had to serve his full time in prison, since forgiveness does not necessarily exempt the sinner from paying his debt to society and growing in conversion.  Forgiveness means that we do not hold the sin against the sinner any more.

But as we have seen with God’s mercy in creating us, there are occasions when we must show mercy even to those who have not sinned at all, those who are in a bad condition through no fault of their own.  The Catholic tradition suggests the works of mercy, ways to treat others better than they deserve.

We have the Corporal Works of Mercy that attend to the bodily needs of others, like the early community of Christians in today’s first reading did for each other.

1.    To feed the hungry

2.    To give drink to the thirsty

3.    To clothe the naked

4.    To shelter the homeless

5.    To visit the sick

6.    To visit the imprisoned

7.    To bury the dead

We also have the spiritual works of mercy that attend to the souls of others, like the disciples did for Thomas to bring him to faith in the Risen Lord.

1.    To instruct the ignorant

2.    To counsel the doubtful

3.    To admonish sinners

4.    To bear wrongs patiently

5.    To forgive offences willingly

6.    To comfort the afflicted

7.    To pray for the living and the dead.

In all these ways, we extend God’s mercy to others.

Conclusion

In the Our Father we pray: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  With those words, we admit that we are in need of and recipients of God’s mercy, and at the same time we are givers of God’s mercy.  May we always be consoled by this privilege of receiving and giving mercy.