Yesterday was Divine Mercy Sunday, the great feast of God’s mercy. And we absolutely should celebrate this feast and take advantage of the sacraments if at all possible. But the amazing thing about our God is that His mercy isn’t limited to one day. We can call on Him any day of the year, any moment of our lives, and we will always find Him waiting for us with open arms, ready to pour out His mercy on us.
To me, Divine Mercy Sunday is like a birthday, in a sense. It’s an important day, and you don’t want to miss it, especially because of God’s great promise of “complete remission of sins and punishment” for those who go to confession and receive Holy Communion (Diary 300, 699, 1109).
But the whole point of a birthday is to celebrate a person, the person’s life, all the beauty and goodness that person has brought to others, and to honor and acknowledge the person. It’s similar to many other celebrations, like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Veteran’s Day, etc. Just because there is a designated day to celebrate these various groups, doesn’t mean we have to limit our celebration to one day! We should honor and cherish the people in our lives every day, not just on birthdays or other holidays. So it is with God.
We ought to be thanking and praising God daily for His great mercy, honoring Him above anyone else in our lives. Because truly, since mercy is simply love that reaches down to the undeserving, everything that comes to us from God is mercy, and He is not stingy. God longs to open the floodgates of His mercy to each and every one of us; all we have to do is say, “Jesus, I trust in You. You know all my failings and just how much I need your mercy. I ask for as much of it as possible! Help me receive it, respond to it, and hunger for more.”
So I hope all of you took advantage of Divine Mercy Sunday, but also, as we continue our journey through the Easter season, I hope you never forget that God’s mercy is always there — every day, every hour, every moment. And even though The Divine Mercy Novena is over, maybe this week, we can continue praying the Chaplet daily, or at least pausing at the three o’clock hour to remember the mercy of God in a special way. The Octave of Easter ended with this great feast yesterday, but it has all simply reminded us that our God is a God of mercy, and His mercy is forever.
On the way home from mass yesterday, we had KLove on and Matthew West’s song Day One came on and it has a part where it says, “Every morning mercy’s new.” My seven-year-old called from the backseat: Mom! Just like the picture of Jesus at mass. He’s talking about Divine Mercy!
Thank you for all your family has done to promote the beautiful gift of Divine Mercy!