On this Sunday, the Octave of Easter, the Universal Church has been called since 2000 frst by Pope Saint John Paul II to observe a day of thanksgiving for God’s Mercy, and of prayer that we might become mercy for the world in which we live. Mercy Sunday is the Church’s opportunity to share in the wonder of this Gift as frst experienced in private revelation by Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska.
In many ways, we have become a people of fascination with celebrities. Whether they are athletes, performing artists, or even the shadow princes of business and fnance, the more outrageous images or voices in the world of politics or the cult heroes who build a personal stage on the backs of otherwise authentic social movements … their reward is easily measured in dollar amounts or the number of hits to their websites. Some are thoughtful, creative, and generous from such pinnacles of fame and infuence, but we know only too well that many are trapped within the limits fame itself creates.
The wonder of the Easter Mystery we celebrate is that the One who was and is at the right hand of the Father embraced His Passion, Death and Resurrection not to remain within the gut-wrenching setting of his Cross, nor to remain as the simple object of wonder in the eyes of his Disciples, from Mary of Magdala at the Tomb to the Disciples gathered in the Upper Room. Their emotion and adulation were not prompted for His sake, but for theirs! AND for our sake! They and we are more than an audience.
Today we read of John going to be on Patmos because of his ministry. “The Voice” he hears directs him to write down on a scroll what he sees and hears. That same Voice calls us to not be satisfed until our lives are the scrolls upon which He writes, for our sake and for the sake of the world through us.