The Lord has had to patiently teach me the Divine Mercy devotion over years. My interest in the devotion grew during my first assignment after having been in my religious community for five years. We have our own devotion to Jesus as the Divine Master Way, Truth, and Life. I love this devotion because it is an explicit, all encompassing understanding of how Christ is the remedy for our whole lives.
During my first assignment, I grew to love Divine Mercy by riding on the coattails of beautiful people and priests at our local parish. I had trouble understanding at first, and I guess this is a reason why I love the Saint Thomas in the Gospel story today. I love his honesty. He is like a child. In fact, the Lord beautifully answered Saint Thomas’ candor earlier in this same Gospel during the Last Supper discourse. He taught, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”
God is not only with us, but is Himself the Way, Truth, and Life. Because of Saint Thomas’ transparency, we have one of the most vivid, memorable illustration of the Lord’s desire to be close to us. God allows Saint Thomas to put his finger into His nail marks and his hand into His side.
This is radical.
The Lord wants us to feel and know His mercy is glorious, eternal, and accessible.
The promised graces of Divine Mercy Sunday are so radically beautiful that I had to really ask the Lord to help me believe and prepare to receive His unfathomable mercy. In these fifteen years I have learned and seen countless instances of God’s mercy transforming bitter and hardened hearts. God only wants us to ask for His gifts and place ourselves in the occasion to receive the super abundant graces of this day. He allows the childlike, the Saint Doubting Thomas-like, to come so very near. This is our joy. This is why Pope Saint John Paul II wrote, “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.”
Happy Easter and Happy Divine Mercy Sunday. May God's mercies flow in your life. Ask Him and He will send them!
Sister Maria Kim Bui is a Daughter of Saint Paul, women religious dedicated to evangelization in and through the media. She is originally from Tempe, AZ, spent most of her fourteen years in religious life in the northeast, and is part of a bilingual evangelization team of sisters serving in Texas. Find out more about her here.
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