🩸💧 Divine Mercy Sunday
Happy Divine Mercy Sunday, everybody! Honestly been a bit loopy these past few days, but I always have God to help me through whatever it is this time, even though I pretend I can do it on my own. It’s funny. I always end up asking God for help (which always clears up or at least helps me through the issue), but not before I try to distract myself, push down my feelings, or self-sabotage first. I’m going to try to make God my first go-to again, so please pray for me on that.
Before we start, I wanted to define mercy for yalls, since I confused it with forgiveness, but mercy is defined as the “withholding of harsh treatment that one has a right to inflict” (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy), while forgiveness is more an internal “letting go” of anger and hurt against a person and/or restoring the relationship with them. Mercy also involves a combination of forgiveness, benevolence, and compassion.
Thinking about it more, it struck me, the concept of Mercy. It’s like standing on trial, convicted guilty for a crime you know you committed, receiving a sentence you know you deserve. But right as they lead you away for the death penalty, all of a sudden, the judge announces all charges are cleared. Because Someone else received the penalty in your place.
This is perhaps the reason why Divine Mercy Sunday, the Resurrection, and Christ’s Passion are all deeply connected: the love of One to take the punishment we know we—and this sinful world—deserve, but the hope that we do have another chance to live a new life. We’ve won, you see? But the problem is, sometimes, we’re indifferent to this.
Indifference is a peculiarly common attitude, not just in people, but in Christians, too. Despite stuff like media polarization and black-and-white morality, we’re more often found the grey area. On the fence, and noncommittal to any side. Especially in this day and age, as we are rapidly exposed to new ideas and the world, novelty gradually disappears and we’re left desensitized to evil and indifferent to good, leaving us…in the middle. We’re indifferent to evil, indifferent to good.
It’s like witnessing a supernova or eclipse, but peeling your eyes from the sky, you see people around you…moving as normal. You try to tell them about what’s happening above them, but most move past you or shrug you off. And isn’t it maddening, that as you see the world in the light of this new phenomenon, the world moves on like nothing else has changed? And that’s the main question. You can be a witness to the most profound phenomena, or experience something extraordinary. But how will it change you? What happens after that?
I think this is why Divine Mercy Sunday exists. Sure, Easter is a nice holiday which Christians nations celebrate, and getting to indulge in the (non-harmful) things you gave up during Lent may be a highlight. But the main question is what happens after Easter. Divine Mercy isn’t just about God deleting our sins, but us being changed by it. If our next reaction to seeing a supernova would be to tell as many people as we can about it, isn’t that what the Apostles did after Jesus rose from the dead? Because this Mercy exists, this purpose exists for us. And because this purpose exists, despite the pains and difficulties of life, our suffering has meaning. Those who trust in God’s Mercy (and believe me, it is very hard sometimes to trust) know deep down that pain isn’t the end goal, but is used to transform us—should we allow Mercy to change us.
As a Christian, I wanted to also clarify that this journey involves a lot of falling down and getting up. Just because I speak about these things doesn’t mean everything goes smoothly for me—I don’t trust His mercy, I have been indifferent to Him, I’ve hurt Him and others. But God gives you and me all the chances to make it right again, through Mercy and Grace, to get up again. So grab it. Make these days count, okay? I’ll check up on you again in the next log.