Divine Mercy Sunday and Parish

I spent Divine Mercy Sunday at Divine Mercy Parish in Brownsville, Texas, with the added joy of confirming some 65 candidates for the Sacrament. Divine Mercy is the newest of 12 parishes in the City, and is currently in temporary facilities. Soon the first building on the Church property located on the east side of Alton Gloor Street will be complete, and I look forward to blessing it so that Mass can be celebrated there. Moving into the new facility will be a great day for the parish community.

A view from the Altar, with the Confirmation class in front.

To the right.

To the left.

Lots of people, as you can see, and a fitting example of the joy and peace the Church contemplates on Divine Mercy Sunday. This joy comes from knowing that the Lord has appeared to his disciples and He has breathed his Spirit upon them. The victory over sin and death which He won for us by his Cross and Resurrection is now shared with us by an outpouring of his risen life into us. Baptism initiates this sharing, Holy Communion nourishes it, and Confirmation strengthens it into a share in the Lord's mission to the world. As I am fond of saying to our Confirmation candidates throughout the diocese, the gift is given so that we can go out the Church doors confident in the final victory that is ours in Christ Jesus. The victory is not so much ours personally-- it is that of course-- but it is also a victory for the human family, a vindication of goodness and grace over the multiple manifestations of sin that scar our world. The reading of the Passion should still be fresh in our minds, and with it, a vivid sense that evil and sin are agressive, and seek to destroy all that is good and noble in the human creature. But of all the pernicious effects of evil and sin, the most deadly is the power it has to discourage us from doing good, and being good. Another thing I tend to repeat at Confirmations: If it were easy to be good, everybody would be that way. But it is not so easy, it requires the gift of God that comes to us through the sacraments, and especially Confirmation. The ferocity we saw in the Passion is not unknown to us in our time. Evil continues to try to knock down goodness, crucify it and bury it, so as to keep it down forever. The victory of Jesus Christ over the tomb is thus for us the sure sign that in the end, the Goodness of God cannot be kept down. In Christ Jesus, goodness wins, mercy wins. And thus when we are made sharers in his Spirit we are offered a share in his victory.

This is so important to our young people, who are so often discourged in the pursuit of goodness and virtue. Thus the gift of the strength and power of the Holy Spirit is for them, and for us, a remedy to our tendency to give up the good fight for what is innocent, honorable, beautiful and noble in life. If we don't believe that in the end goodness triumphs, how could we have the courage to make the sacrifices needed to live a good and honorable life? Discouragement leads to despair. This is our greatest suffering as men and women. And the gift of the Spirit is the remedy offered to us by the Risen Christ, solidifying in us the confidence we need to get up whenever sin and evil succeed in knowcking us down. We believe in Christ Crucified and Risen; We believe in the victory of goodness over sin, and so we live in the deep and abiding hope that, as S. Teresa of Avila said, "All will be well." This is the mercy that is the remedy for our fatigue and temptations to despair. In a world where there is increasing shadow, where so many simply throw up their hands in the face of the aggressiveness of evil, and say "what's the use?", we say the mercy of God has appeared, and has come to dwell within us by his Spirit. And armed with the very goodness of Jesus, we can have the courage to be good, too. In the end, this is what our communities most need, couragous men and women, young and old, with the confidence rooted in faith that renews a light of hope in the world. For, al fin y al cabo, what do we hope for? We hope for the victory of life over death, joy over sadness, mercy over recrimination, and justice over injustice. All this we believe in, because Christ is risen. And because Christ is risen, we believe that-- despite the power of death, sadness, recrimination and injustice-- goodness wins. Call upon the Mercy of God in times of trial and sorrow. The Spirit will strengthen you, help you to a better day, and confirm you in the courage simply to remain firm in goodness.