Christ the Cornerstone

God’s mercy and compassion are everlasting

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time” (1 Pt 1:3-5).

The Second Sunday of Easter is called Divine Mercy Sunday because the joy which we celebrate during the Easter season inspires us to reflect on the “great mercy” God has given us through the resurrection of his only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. God’s mercy is a major theme in sacred Scripture. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament speak of the ways in which God loves and forgives his people—even, or especially, when we don’t deserve it.

Israel’s confidence in God’s mercy is affirmed in the responsorial psalm (Ps 118) for Divine Mercy Sunday:

Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let the house of Aaron say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let those who fear the Lord say,
“His mercy endures forever.” (Ps 118:2-4)

In this psalm, we are invited to be glad and rejoice because “the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” and because God’s mercy is “wonderful in our eyes.” (Ps 118:22-23)

A powerful testimony to God’s love and forgiveness is presented to us in the second reading for Divine Mercy Sunday (1 Pt 1:3-9). Here we learn that God’s great mercy has given us “a new birth to a living hope” (1 Pt 1:3).

As illustrated in the familiar parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32), our loving Father is always waiting for us with open arms in spite of our selfishness and sin. His mercy is boundless, and even when we have squandered the gifts God has given us, St. Peter tells us that God still provides us with an “inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1 Pt 1:4). Nothing that we do can destroy what God’s great mercy has “kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time” (1 Pt 1:5).

There is a tendency on the part of some people to focus on the wrath of God. The true God is kind and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in mercy. Indeed, as we pray in Psalm 118: Let those who fear the Lord say, “His mercy endures forever.” (Ps 118:4)

But what about God’s justice? Will God not hold us accountable for our sinful attitudes and actions? Yes, God is both merciful and just. The Scriptures and the Creed both attest to the fact that Christ will return on the Last Day “to judge the living and the dead.”

But before the Last Judgment, which will not be arbitrary or unfair in any way, we are given every conceivable opportunity to repent, ask God’s forgiveness and strive to change our ways with the help of God’s grace.

And even when we prove over and over again by our actions and our hardness of heart that we are not worthy of God’s unconditional love, God is merciful. As St. Peter says, our inheritance is “kept safe for us in heaven” (1 Pt 1:4) so that the full extent of God’s love for us will only be revealed “in the final time” (1 Pt 1:5).

St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, who died in 1938 and was canonized a saint by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000, was a Polish sister of Our Lady of Mercy whose mystical visions of Jesus inspired the Divine Mercy devotion. She wrote in her diary that “[God’s] goodness no one has fathomed, no one can measure. His compassion is untold. Every soul that approaches him experiences this.”

Far from being an angry, vengeful tyrant, God is merciful beyond measure. God wants only what is good for us and for his creation. We may succeed in offending God by our words and actions, by the things we have done and those we have failed to do, but in spite of everything, our God waits for us. He stands ready to forgive us and welcome us home.

Throughout this Easter season, and especially on Divine Mercy Sunday, let’s thank God for his inexhaustible love and forgiveness. With the psalmist, let us pray:

I was hard pressed and was falling,
but the Lord helped me.
My strength and my courage is the Lord,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just. (Ps 118:13-15)

And let’s forgive others as we ask our loving Father to forgive us. †