Homily for Divine Mercy Sunday (B)
April 8, 2018
Sacred Heart, EGF – 7:30, 9:00, 10:30

Focus:              The wounds of Christ are what God uses to heal our wounds.
Function:        Show him your wounds.

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He showed them his hands and his side.

He showed them his wounds.

His body, risen and glorified, still bore the scars, the gashes, and the holes from the nails that held him to the cross. It still bore the mark of the soldier’s spear that was thrust through his most Sacred Heart.

Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side.

You need to see my wounds? I not only show them to you, I let you experience them.

He showed them his wounds.

The wounds of Christ are what God uses to heal our wounds.

The wounds of Christ remind us of the price he paid for our redemption.

The wounds of his hands, which bled…his hands, through which the blood of Christ pours over your baptized soul, when a priest, acting in the very person of Christ, raises the same wounded hand of Christ over your head and pronounces those sacred words: I absolve you…

The wounds of Christ, especially the wound in his side, the wound of his Sacred Heart, pierced for our offenses so that his Precious Blood could gush forth like a raging torrent, washing over our sins, forgiving and healing them, restoring the life we had lost. It was through the wound in his side that his Precious Blood poured forth, the blood that prefigures the Eucharist, the same Blood from his Sacred Heart that pours forth from his side and into the Chalice in this celebration of the Eucharist.

The wounds of his side, through which the water which prefigures baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit surges forth, the true stream that flows out of the Temple of his Body onto a dry and weary land, giving new birth, new life, to those who drink from this living stream in the fountain of baptism…

He showed them his wounds…

The wounds of Christ are what God uses to heal the wounds of sin.

The wounds of Christ are what God uses to heal our wounds.

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday.

Today we celebrate the mercy of God. The mercy of God is manifested in the wounds of his Son, in the wounds He bore for us.

This is a special feast day for our parish in particular. We are the community of Sacred Heart, and today we are reminded that His Sacred Heart was pierced.  Blood and water flowed forth, as we see in the image that Sr. Faustina left us.

I am speaking, of course, of the image of Divine Mercy.

This image is in our church, it is in the most appropriate place in our church. It is in the confessional.

The image shows Jesus looking at you, one hand raised in blessing, the other pointing to the wound in his side…his wounded heart, through which 2 rays shine forth onto you…2 rays representing the water and the blood that flowed from his side. Jesus Christ came in water and in blood.

He came in water to give you new birth.

He came in blood to nourish you with his flesh for the life of the world.

He came to manifest the mercy of God. He came to give us an image of Divine Mercy.

Mercy. Misericordia.  The Latin word means “a suffering heart”.  A heart that is wounded by the suffering of another.

My brothers and sisters, if you ever doubt the words of Christ, you need only to look to and to experience his wounds. If you doubt his words, believe his wounds.  The caption under the image of divine mercy reads, “Jesus, I trust in you.”  Look at the crucifix and see what he endured for you, for love of you.  His heart suffered for your sins.  His heart was wounded by your sins in order to absolve you of your sins.  Look at the mark on his side, see that his heart was pierced for you, and believe in the Mercy of God.  Trust in the mercy of God.  Look at the wound of his side, and cry out in faith with Thomas: My Lord and My God! Jesus, I trust in you!

The wounds of Christ are what God uses to heal our wounds.

He shows us his wounds so that we will show him our wounds.

He shows us his wounds so that we will trust him with our wounds.

The place where we trust him with our wounds is in the confessional. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them. Whose sins you retain are retained.

God takes away our sins, but he doesn’t take away our wounds. They still remain, just like Christ’s wounds remain.  But he heals them.  He glorifies them, just as Christ’s wounds were glorified.  He leaves the scars to remind us of what he has done for us.

The scars remind us of his Divine Mercy.

His glorified wounds remind us that his mercy continues to gush forth from them, even today. They remind us that his mercy endures forever.