Liberation from Trusting in Divine Mercy

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday. Does anyone here pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy?

Actually, at our church, before all the Sunday Mandarin Masses, the community prays the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy. Using the Rosary beads, they do five decades of meditative prayer. Each decade begins with “Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.” Then, instead of the “Hail Mary”, for each bead the prayer leader says, “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion”, and the group responses, “have mercy on us and on the whole world”. Then the decade ends with, “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

This prayer comes from a， Sister Faustina, a polish nun, who journaled her experiences with our Risen Lord, who gave her specific instructions on this prayer, the establishment of today’s Feast and the image that you see at the front of the altar. And the message? For us to be centered on trusting God’s endless mercy because God is the font of love, and this love and mercy leads to the forgiveness of sins. That’s why at the bottom of the image, there is usually a phrase, “Jesus, I trust in You”.

So, my brothers and sisters, do you believe Sister Faustina? Her vision and her instructions from Jesus? In a way, since the Church has accepted and approved the message and the image, we have reason to also accept the teaching. But do we really believe?

Does anyone remember when was the first time you truly believed that Jesus Christ has been risen from the dead and returned to us full of love for us as our Lord and Savior? I’m not talking about the first time you came to church. Nor am I asking the moment you were baptized. What I really hope we can reflect about is the moment that we accepted and truly believe that Jesus is real, a God and a Man, who came into our existence to save us, but ended up on the Cross, crucified, died, and was risen from the dead and still came back to the apostles, to the people who betrayed Him, and continued to teach them, heal them, guide them.

This isn’t something that anyone can do easy, it takes the patience of someone who really loves another – and that is Divine Love, that is Divine Mercy.

In 2012, I went to Manila to do a walking pilgrimage of the different churches. Each day, I would visit 3-4 churches. I would take public transport to the first church and then walk on foot to the other 3. After the last one, I would take public transport back to the motel that I was staying at. During one of the days, I was trying to get to the Archdiocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy. I got lost for hours and I walked into a very secluded neighborhood. There were no open stores on the streets, the place looked isolated, and honestly, I was scared. The taxi driver who brought me from the airport to the motel told me that Manila can be dangerous to tourists. He warned me that I could get into real trouble if I am not careful. Told me to keep away from back alleys or the slums. He told me this because I had reserved a motel in a back alley. When I was lost, I was really afraid, then when some teenagers started to walk behind me, I just quickened my pace and kept praying in my heart. This went on for a while, and I was trying to look for an area where there are more people. Then in the midst of all these fears, I heard church bells ringing, it was to remind people that Mass is started. I followed and walked in the direction of the sound, and sure enough, I reached the destination, Divine Mercy, the Shrine of Divine Mercy. Needless to say, I was so moved by the experience that my prayers in the Church were long and sincere. I also decided that that would be the last stop of the day, and went back to the motel immediately. My experiences in Manila really changed me. I think Manila was the place that God challenged my faith the most, but I believe it was the place that inspired me to discern to become a foreign missioner.

But I didn’t always have a strong faith, like Thomas in the Gospel, I had my share of moments of doubts. And I believe it is OK, to have such moments because in our Church Tradition, a true faith, is one that seeks understanding. Meaning, we do not stop at learning what we need to do, or how to pray, but we need to continue to learn, to understand the spiritual experiences in our lives.

For Thomas, it was about encountering the Risen Lord again, to physically touch his wounds again. And this is not surprising, especially in our current reality. Nowadays in school, the importance of the Scientific method has been overstressed. Sometimes, we even hear some teachers and professors telling us that Science leads us to the truth, Science is what will change our futures, and so the Scientific method is the way forward. But the Church teaches us differently, she teaches us that Christ is the way, the truth and life. And the Church teaches that Science and Faith are compatible, they help each other, and they can co-exist in our lives.

That’s why Jesus didn’t forsake Thomas, for his sake, Jesus appeared and answered Thomas’ request. Jesus invited him to touch his wounds, but Jesus challenged Thomas to stretch his faith, saying, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” This message for Thomas is equally meaningful to us today as it was for Thomas.

Jesus knew that He would ascend into heaven when the time is right. And that He would not return until the Day of Final Judgement. So his statement is to remind Thomas, and to remind us that in the future, people are not going to be able to see and talk to Jesus like He did with the apostles, but they will be blessed if they still believed. This is such an important message that it is repeated in the 1st Letter of Peter, “Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,

you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

In these two scriptures, the “seeing” refers to physical sight, we can continue to “see” Jesus in our lives because of faith, because we are “seeing” Him through the eyes of faith.

My brothers and sisters, let me share the moment that I truly believed. In my final preparations for my baptism in 2011, I felt the need to reconcile my relationships with different people in my life. I reached out to many whom I had arguments for, especially friends and colleagues who were once good friends, but for some disagreements, we just stopped being close to each other. It was a difficult process because some would not even give me a chance to talk to them. There were many who was willing to sit down and chat and talk about what happened before. Then there was this person that I really respect, even until today, after I had explained why and what I am doing, and asked for his forgiveness, he said to me, “What is there to forgive? I had never blamed you for what happened?” His words gave me a sense of freedom. They liberated me in a very special way, as if it was being said from beyond him. I didn’t understand that feeling, but I would feel it again at my first confession – because God’s forgiveness is everlasting and unconditional, “What is there to forgive?” meaning, if we already feel repentant, why would God continue to find fault with us? Why would God want us to suffer the burden of anger, pain and hurt from the mistakes we made. He only wants us to feel free again to be close to Him again.

When we feel liberated to approach God, we would feel renewed, energized, that is the power of conversion. It was the same for me after my baptism, I wanted to understand God more intimately, I joined different groups to serve in the church, I took classes, bought books to read and went on pilgrimages, like the one in Manila. Each little thing that I did, I was trying to imitate Christ to imitate the early disciples, like those described in the first Reading,

“All who believed were together and had all things in common;

they would sell their property and possessions

and divide them among all according to each one’s need.

Every day they devoted themselves

to meeting together in the temple area

and to breaking bread in their homes.

They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart,

praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.”

Yes, my brothers and sisters, recognizing God’s Divine Mercy in our lives is the first step to believing that God is Real in our lives, it should lead us to pray for continued Trust in Him, when times are hard. But more importantly, it is the beginning of a conversion of our lives, for us be help people who can no longer see Jesus to believe and trust again.

In a moment, we will be receiving the Eucharist, the Body of Christ. And in that moment, the presence of Christ will be strengthen in this space and we will be invited to use the Divine gift, to be Christ to one another, to be Christ to those people we meet outside the Church. My dear friends, since our baptism, we have become a presence of Christ, and every Sacrament, especially Holy Communion, strengthens Jesus’ presence. That is why, at the end of Mass, during the sending off, the deacon or the priest would announce, “The Mass is over, Go in peace, glorifying the Lord with your lives.” That is the meaning of the sending forth message, for us to use the grace we have received, to help those who “have not seen Jesus, love Him” to be the instrument for those who “do not see him now yet, believe in him”.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, what do you say? Are you willing to go out after Holy Communion, to share the Divine Mercy you have received from Christ, to give the people in your life, a chance to see Jesus?