God's love endures forever

God’s love endures forever. God’s mercy endures forever. God’s mercy endures even in the unfaithful hearts, doubting hearts, unworthy hearts. This is the heart of the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday.

The first reading tells the effects of God’s mercy to the apostles. They gathered together, prayed together, helped each other and inspired other people. Many people followed them who shared all they had. That mercy has been shared to other, to many.

Hope, faith and joy. These are the images given by Peter in the second reading. He knows the difficulty of many people. He knows their sins and weaknesses. But Peter was confident that trials were allowed by God to test our faith and fidelity to God; to train our hearts to trust in Him.

Peter, likewise, reminds them that even if they haven’t seen God, they showed love and believed. And there they found joy, that indescribable feeling as they attain their goal.

That is our Goal, to love and serve the Lord.

In the gospel, Thomas also called the doubter, or the twin, reminds us of we are. Like Thomas, we are sometimes believers and other times, doubters. But God has always been persistent. God will never give up. He will continue to show his mercy. God will continue to run after us even after miles and years of hiding and living in sin and unbelief.

Still in the gospel, the apostles, aside from being afraid of the Romans, they must also be afraid of Jesus. For if He is truly risen, they will surely expect Him to reprimand them of leaving Him behind, of disowning Him. Remember, they never showed their faces to fight for Him when He was at the hands of the Romans.

They must felt that shame, anger and disgust and pity. They could not bear what they did to Him. But look at the words of Jesus when He appeared to them, he said, “Peace be with you, peace be with you.” It was not anger or hatred. It was love. It was mercy. Jesus did not remind them of what they did back then. Instead, He showed peace, forgiveness, hope, and joy.

Maybe it was not only the resurrection of Jesus that gave new life to the apostles, but how he loved them, how he showed mercy to them. They say “people may forget what you say or give to them, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

So what happened to the apostles’ fears and worries? What happened to their hearts? They were brought to life again.

The resurrection and the mercy of God are not just words or ideas, they are powerful events to change us, to make us anew.

This Divine Mercy Sunday be not afraid. Let go of all your worries and doubts. Be still for God’s love endures forever. His mercy endures forever. God’s mercy is a living word of promise that He will do anything for you.

God bless!

Divine Mercy Sunday

April 19, 2020

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