Pope at Mass: 'Divine Mercy opens us to suffering of others'
By Devin Watkins
For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, Mass was celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica on Divine Mercy Sunday, after the feast was celebrated for the last two years in the nearby Church of the Holy Spirit in the Saxon District.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, presided over the Mass, which saw Pope Francis participate and deliver the homily.
The Pope focused on the three times Jesus spoke the words “Peace be with you” to the disciples after His death and resurrection.
He said that Christians find that those words of God’s mercy “give joy, then grant forgiveness, and finally offer comfort in every difficulty.”
Filling us with joy
The first time Jesus spoke those words on the evening of Easter (Jn 20), said the Pope, the disciples were filled with joy.
As they huddled in fear three days after Jesus’ death, the disciples were “burdened by a sense of failure” after having abandoned their Master and even denied Him in His tragic hour.
In this condition, said Pope Francis, they should have felt shame at seeing Jesus’ face.
Yet, His greeting of peace made them turn their attention “away from themselves and towards Jesus.”
The joy brought by Jesus, added the Pope, cuts through our own failings and helps us embrace God’s mercy and the joy of being forgiven.
Jesus offers us “a joy that raises us up without humiliating us.”
Granting us forgiveness
Pope Francis then reflected on the second time Jesus said “Peace be with you,” after which He adds “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
After having received God’s forgiveness, said the Pope, the disciples are made “agents of reconciliation” in order to dispense “the mercy that they themselves have received.”
Jesus, said the Pope, has made the entire Church a “community that dispenses mercy, a sign and instrument of reconciliation for all humanity.”
He added that each of us must spread God’s mercy to those around us in every situation of life.
Offering us comfort
The final time Jesus utters His peaceful greeting comes after Thomas has expressed his disbelief of Jesus’ resurrection.
Rather than rebuking him, Jesus comes to Thomas’ aid and allows him to put his finger in His side.
Pope Francis said that every believer can relate to Thomas’ story and disbelief. Jesus comes to us too with “heartwarming signs of His mercy” and comforts us “by offering His wounds.”
Divine Mercy opens us up to suffering of others
At the same time, said the Pope, our experience of God’s mercy helps us to see the wounds of our brothers and sisters.
“We think that we are experiencing unbearable pain and situations of suffering, and we suddenly discover that others around us are silently enduring even worse things,” he said. “If we care for the wounds of our neighbour and pour upon them the balm of mercy, we find being reborn within us a hope that comforts us in our weariness.”
In conclusion, Pope Francis urged all Christians to make Divine Mercy Sunday their own by lending a helping hand or listening ear to those around us who may be suffering.
“From the eyes of all those who are weighed down by the trials of life,” said the Pope, “He looks out at us with mercy and says once more to us: ‘Peace be with you!’”
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