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.

This prayer of the Divine Mercy Chaplet sums up what this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter is all about. Pope Saint John Paul II instituted the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy on the same day he canonized Sister Faustina a saint. Saint Faustina’s visions of Christ had called for this Second Sunday of Easter to be known as Divine Mercy to remind us of his infinite, divine mercy.

This mercy has been felt throughout the ages in various ways depending on the time. His Mercy was shown to the Israelites as he guided them out of slavery in Egypt. It was shown in David with how he would atone for his sins and God’s mercy would shower down on him and his people.

It can be seen in today’s reading from Acts, how those who were just in Peter’s shadow were healed due to their faith and atonement. It can even be found in Jesus’ gentle rebuke of Thomas in the Gospel today;

Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

In his mercy he reminds us that if we believe in what we have not seen then we can have eternal life, just as Thomas and the apostles who walked with Jesus have received.

As Pope Francis often reminded us, by word and deed, this mercy is freely given to those who seek it. His life and papacy showed us the way to not only care for the lowest of society, but also the outcast. He showed it was possible to truly welcome all people to join us, even when they didn’t follow Jesus’ teachings. We welcome them in and let the Holy Spirit do the converting.

While we may capable of the talk we may not always be able to walk the walk. We are in many ways like Thomas in today’s Gospel. We need concrete proof that God exists and is working in our lives. This can lead us to believe that we know better than God. Pope Francis continually reminded us that we were be like those that Jesus tells the apostles about. The ones who believe without seeing. This is what our faith is calling us to do in how we interact with everyone.

This unending Mercy from God is not only for us, but for all people. We as people of God are called to show this to all we meet. We are not called to judge people’s actions or lifestyles. We are called to welcome them in and show them that living for the one who died and then rose from the dead is a much better way of life.

Pope Francis reminded us of His unending, mercy in his encyclical  Evangelii Gaudium when he says “Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy … Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love.”

This dignity that all of us are endowed with, is there no matter our station in life, or our own perceived notion of our personal shortcomings. We are called, just as Thomas was to believe that in his mercy we will find forgiveness, compassion and a love that we seem incapable of relying on.

We need to remember that when Christ appears to the apostles his first words are “Peace be with you “ . These are the same people who, even though they accompanied him all through his ministry, abandoned him at the most treacherous time. The one he would put in charge of his church even denied knowing at this time. How many of us would have come back and wished this group peace when we had the power to destroy them? This is the type of mercy God is capable of!

The Divine Mercy we are offered is so far beyond our understanding that most of us are incapable of showing it to others. There are however those among us who can guides us on this path. Some examples are Saint Pope John Paul II going to prison to forgive the man who shot him. Another was Pope Francis in how he always was reaching for those on the margins and those who were in opposition to him.

Pope Francis was our blessed shepherd for 12 years and showed us the way to be merciful in ways we were unfamiliar with. He would say things that would set off a firestorm of controversy until you looked at the entire conversation it revolved around. Maybe the most famous being the statement “Who am I to judge” The media took this as an outward sign he was going to change the Catholic teaching on same sex attraction. He was talking about who was he to judge the person’s heart in these instances. His point was we are not to judge a person based on the belief that they are doing something contrary to what we believe. We are called to pray for them and to be there to assist in a conversion of heart to follow God’s will not their own. As a reminder we are all called to follow God’s will not our own.

Pope Francis showed us how to do this through his humility from the moment he was first introduced to us when before he gave us his blessing, he asked for our prayers. He lived this out in every interaction he had by continually asking for those he came in contact with to pray for him. This practice is the same as us in praying the Divine Mercy chaplet we say “ For the sake of His sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday as we mourn the loss of Pope Francis we continue to hope and pray not only for the repose of the Pope’s soul, but also for God’s mercy to shower down on the entire world to help guide us on the Path that God has for each of us and for the whole world. So I ask you to join me in saying “For the sake of His sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

We also pray God grant eternal joy to Pope Francis. Eternal rest grant unto him and let perpetual light shine on him.