2nd Sun. Easter / Divine Mercy 2017
“Who, What, How Are We?”
Fr. Jeff Nicolas
Still fresh from our Easter Sunday celebrations let’s ask three questions: Who are we as Church? What are we to be about? How did we get here?
Who are we? The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles reveals this. “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.” We, like the first, devote ourselves to being Church. We are the Mystical Body of Christ. The Acts of the Apostles goes on to say, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.” We, like the first, strive not to be self-centered, but other-centered, a people of service to one another. This is who we are.
What are we to be about? We are to be about bringing the light of Christ, entrusted to each of us at our baptism, into all the dark crevasses of our lives and relationships. Specifically today this takes the form of mercy.
Pope Francis in an address to Rome pastors said, “I am sure that we are living in a time of mercy and have been for 30 years or more, up to today.” He said Jesus invites us as a Church “to grasp the depths of his heart, what he feels for the crowds, for the people he encounters: that interior attitude of ‘compassion.’” What are we to be about? We are to be mercy for one another.
In the year 2000 St. John Paul II canonized Sr. Faustina Kowalska and instituted the Feast of “Divine Mercy” saying, “What will the years ahead bring us? What will man’s future on earth be like? We are not given to know. However, it is certain that in addition to new progress there will unfortunately be no lack of painful experiences. But the light of divine mercy, which the Lord in a way wished to return to the world through Sr. Faustina’s charism, will illumine the way for the men and women of the third millennium.” As I teach our children in St. Mary’s Academy, “God gets to us through us.” So what are we to be about? We are to be mercy for one another.
Pope Francis describes the Church today as a field hospital writing, “Wounds needs to be treated, so many wounds! There are so many people who are wounded by material problems, by scandals, also in the church, … people wounded by the world’s illusions.”
What are we to be about as Church? Mercy!
And how did we get here? Let me show you. (Demonstrate the apostolic chain.)
We got here one soul at a time. In an unbroken chain from the apostles, through the Real Presence consecrated at our altar, we are here today because of holy men and women who have gone before us. On Easter this chain was strengthened with the addition of 14 men and women who were initiated into our faith. Today (This weekend) several more souls will be grafted to our chain, each called to be a conduit of mercy for God in the world. May each of us be a strong link in this holy chain!
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