Holy Week.  What a week, right?  Holy Week is the roller coaster ride of emotions!  Hosannas on Palm Sunday, tears for the death of Jesus, crucified on Good Friday, and Alleluia!  on Easter Sunday rejoicing in the risen Lord!

Some people, I was among them for years, focus almost exclusively on the crucifixion of Jesus and are deeply moved by the agony He endured for our sake. Catholics and Jews hold the market on guilt, don’t they? Yes, it is amazing and an unbearable love that Jesus became for us the lamb of God…but it made me feel so guilty, so sorry, that something I did wrong added to that suffering and made 100 times worse by the fact that I didn’t DESERVE it!

I still feel sorrow for the fact that I do things that add to that suffering, unintentionally or without thought to what burden I am adding. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is meant to heal the wound between us and Jesus.  But there is another aspect of our Lord’s suffering and dying that needs to be remembered, needs to be focused upon, and that is His resurrection. Without the resurrection we have nothing to talk about with regard to our faith because the resurrection is our hope of dying and rising into new life and is the basis of the Gospel itself which is the foundation of our faith. I think about it all this way: for what I have added, or will add, to the suffering of our Lord in his passion I am truly sorry and I resolve to not do those things that cause our Lord to suffer on my behalf. I try to share the Gospel with others in all ways, verbal, spiritual and physical.  I focus on the promise of eternal life and the examples our Lord gave us while still walking among us and after He died on the cross of how we too will be resurrected into new life after death, how Jesus conquered death, how Jesus paid the ransom for the freedom of our souls from Satan.

There have been many people who bravely, selflessly gave up their lives for people they loved, even people they didn’t know but loved enough to die for them. What a sacrifice, which can never be repaid EXCEPT to live your life in a way that gives honor to the sacrifice made on your behalf. For the person who sacrificed himself to save another we have hope and faith that he will live on in new life, a resurrected life, with the Lord. That faith comes from the proof that Jesus gave us that showed us the WAY. He resurrected Lazarus, a widows dead son, a father’s little girl and He was resurrected after dying on the cross and being buried for 3 days. He worked hard to SHOW us the WAY and the LIFE. Like the disciples we are sometimes a bit dim witted or slow to catch on.  This is what it is all about, Alfie.  Life AFTER death.  A new life, free from pain, suffering, illness and death.  Jesus conquered death and sin so that we, too, can live with the Father in heaven with Jesus.

We have departed the Lent season and have fully entered the Easter season which is the season of the Holy Spirit! God gave us Jesus, the Word made flesh. Jesus became the Lamb of God and was sacrificed to pay the price for our souls. Jesus was resurrected and brought to us the Holy Spirit, the Helper, who would stay with us and help us as we make our way along the path that Jesus forged for us to follow. The Spirit gives us understanding, strength, determination and fills us with the light of God’s love! How awesome is THAT?

This Sunday is also Divine Mercy Sunday adding to the season of the Holy Spirit, the season of Grace.  Divine Mercy Sunday came about through the urgings of St. Faustina, a polish nun, who lived near the beginning of the 20^th century and who experienced many divine revelations from our Lord. In her diary, she wrote how Jesus had told her: “I will pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of my mercy… . Let no one fear to draw near to me, even though their sins be as scarlet” (Diary, 699).  Pope John Paul II instituted the Divine Mercy Sunday:

“Throughout the world the Second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday, a perennial invitation … to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that human­ity will experience in the years to come.” Twelve years ago, Pope John Paul II used these words to inaugu­rate Divine Mercy Sunday, a feast to be celebrated every year on the sec­ond Sunday of Easter.

There are two things above that just reach out and grab at me!  1)  “…a perennial invitation…to face, with confidence in divine benevolence,…” and 2)  “Let no one fear to draw near to me, even though their sins be as scarlet”.  It leaves me speechless, actually.  The unfathomable mercy, the eternal mercy of our God…the incredible love outpouring for us.  I encourage you to experience the Divine Mercy Chaplet.  To me it is the best of both worlds (The Cross and the Resurrection) because you immerse yourself in the Passion of our Lord and approach the fount of His mercy, the blood and water that gushed forth when He was pierced in the side while on the cross.  What is so wonderful about the Divine Mercy devotion is this:  repeatedly Jesus told St. Faustina that people who turned away from Him caused him great sorrow and pain, but those who approached Him and took from the fount of His mercy gave him great happiness and filled Him with joy, instead of sorrow.  The mantra of the Divine Mercy devotion, given to us by Jesus through St. Faustina, is “Jesus, I trust in you”.  I encourage you to at least learn about Divine Mercy Sunday and St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy Chaplet even if you do not become devoted to this adoration.  There is a link on the CLOTW site.

The responsorial psalm (Psalm 118: Give Thanks to the Lord) ends with “This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it.” During this Easter Season of grace, what are the things that you are rejoicing in?