Sunday Lectio 029: Divine Mercy Sunday 2021

[Music] welcome to godsplaining contemplative preachers contemporary age each week join the dominican friars as they consider all things catholic [Music] welcome to godsplaining this is father jacob bertrand janczyk and today on this lectio episode for divine mercy sunday the second sunday of easter i am joined by father gregory pine who seems pretty excited about this being divine mercy sunday's doing a little head dance which i would disapprove of but he's too far away for me to stop him and also by father patrick briscoe who seems less excited uh but also seems happy enough to be here so welcome fathers on this divine mercy sunday how you doing doing well um let's see what's to report mercy switzerland i got nothing um oh i celebrated some masses during easter for an english-speaking community in bern which is nice because it's like preaching in french except um the difference is that it's actually good sometimes um so that's awesome so i was really appreciative for that opportunity [Laughter] do you preach in french often uh maybe like once or twice a week and uh it's right i know what you're saying just go ahead and say that okay do they know what you're saying um yeah so so i've gotten some things wrong right uh some some key things wrong turns out so my my pronunciation is you know it's horseshoes and hand grenady uh but so kerr is heart and cor is a body you don't want to get those confused in certain contexts also salt is blood you know turns out that's important for the sacred liturgy and song is uh like womb right which is a different thing so just heads up protest yikes okay moving on father patrick how are you doing well um you know divine mercy sunday it always makes me think of um going to confession which all of you listeners should do um that's right shame them into it father if you haven't if you haven't done your easter duty yet holy mother church graciously invites you to repent for your sins and be shrived in the name of jesus christ um so just you know just a friendly little invitation there you know to maybe think about making a return to the sacrament yeah if that's something that you want to do well you know our lord i'm sure couldn't have said it better himself so thank you father patrick for encouraging us to frequent the sacrament of penance um i'm sure we'll talk more about that as we talk about the readings on this divine mercy sunday so before diving into the readings let's start as we usually do with the collect for this sunday god of everlasting mercy who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast kindle the faith of the people you have made your own increase we pray the grace you have bestowed that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed by whose spirit they have been reborn by whose blood they have been redeemed through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit god for ever and ever amen all right father gregory take us to the first reading a reading from the acts of the apostles the community of believers was of one heart and mind and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own but they had everything in common with great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the lord jesus and great favor was accorded them all there was no needy person among them for those who owned property or houses would sell them bring the proceeds of the sale and put them at the feet of the apostles and they were distributed to each according to need the word of the lord thanks be to god look i'm just going to come out and say it you have too much stuff i don't know i don't know who you are uh you're listen you're listening to us uh you probably haven't watched enough marie kondu um you know you gotta you gotta give it away um this this is such a powerful this is such a powerful reading because like here we have it right on the nose that the the disciples are so close and the community believers is so tight that everything they own everything they own is shared and put toward the good of all um and i think that it's very easy very easy um for us americans if you're not an american you're listening to this english um english language program um two m's and an e um you know you you probably still have too much too much too so uh you know don't blame this just on the fine citizens of the united states um but things obscure the work of god in our life why because whatever they are we think about them we move them around we dust them um if you don't dust them you should because that means your house is dirty and no one likes dirty house um but things obscure the vision things obscure the vision of god yeah i'm in a mood father gregory i'm sorry uh things obscure the vision of god in our life just all this stuff and it weighs on us and requires maintenance and um it is so liberating to give things away it's so liberating um this is one of the untold glories of religious life that it that is truly freeing to not be bound and surrounded by tons of stuff i mean father gregory put both things he owns in a bag and and moved to switzerland and was a and was it was able to do that in the name of the gospel uh so i think i think that i think that's so wonderful uh but but we are receiving a real invitation for the church to think to think about what our lives would be like were they simpler were we less attached to them what what if we really put everything we had in service to the good of all that's the invitation from this reading from the acts of the apostles this sunday now i didn't take father gregory to the airport did i take you to the airport when he moved i don't think so no but i did see father patrick is right it was just two little like plastic shopping bags from like from like stopping you made five cents for them when he checked out because of the bag yeah he didn't have to pay for luggage it was great he's a real witness to the apostolic life so we thank him and we thank him for his french preaching one of the uh the things that um the the the apostles do that is um striking is that they are apostles of christ um and i and i don't say that in a kind of oh this is just what they are but it's their identity it's who they are and if you read the early accounts of um even in the early persecutions of the church um those accounts from the from roman historians or others um if you read even fiction there's the great novel that pops into my head cuovardis which is about the early christian communities and and their sort of how they're perceived by non-christians by pagans as father patrick was saying they were extremely close they were a close-knit community but they they were what they were because of who they were that's a weird thing to say i guess but they were what they were because of who they were it was a christian identity and they lived that identity and that identity that unity and identity is as um as we get from the acts of the apostles today is predicated on on two things first that they were of one heart and one mind there were one heart and one mind and for us dominicans this is this is something that our the rule of saint augustine and our constitutions talk about of being one heart and one mind in the community after our religious life and especially saint dominic who loved the acts of apostles is founded on these um on these early christian communities but this idea of pursuing one thing of being united in that pursuit of christ so much so that even as father patrick was explaining that the possessions the material concerns of this world take a back seat some of the material things of this world are are very good um but not better than god and not good when they get in the way of god but that they're in one heart and one mind possessing god pursuing god and serving god in the people of god so that's the first thing the second thing that this christian life this christian identity is predicated upon in these early communities from acts is that they all knew who they were they knew that they were sinners in need of god's mercy and that the only reason that they could be together the only reason that they could give their things away the only reason they could do everything that we've already begun to talk about is because they had received god's mercy because they relied on god's providence mercy and love for them because they knew the resurrection was real and that god had fulfilled all prophecy and that god was caring for them and i think this is what this whole divine mercy sunday is of course it's called divine mercy so um that's that's obvious but it's all predicated on the recognition of our christian identity that we've been created by god that god loves us and loved us unto death and that offers us his life through his mercy and through his love to live united together now to build and anticipate the kingdom of heaven now while on earth but also to be prepared for that for that kingdom to come when it does so this sunday as we meditate upon the true nature of mercy we are presented with a variety of images and the image from this first reading which is perhaps most striking is that of you know taking care of the need of those who are most poor or otherwise exposed or you know potentially in a bad situation okay so the community of believers holds all things in common and tends to the needs of those who are poor i think in certain kind of corners or in certain circles in the church we hear great emphasis placed upon um so like physical or um you know like financial material assistance to the poor and this is an essential feature of our faith like i recall having heard archbishop chap you say if you don't love the poor you're going to hell right um but sometimes the way that this um attention or mercy exhibited towards the poor is presented it's presented as if it were the whole faith and i think it's in in those situations where we find ourselves in a kind of an awkward spot because it's almost like we're made to choose between service of the poor and then you know orthodox faith or sacramental praxis or devotional life things like that and we feel like wait we shouldn't have to be made to choose among these things they should all hang together and so what we see in this first reading is that they do hang together um so this is the the early church constituted here in acts 4 is you know just downstream of the ascension in acts 1 of the sending of the holy spirit in acts 2 and the proclamation of the resurrection of our lord jesus christ is at the heart of this scripture so the only reason for which we can be of any service to those in our immediate vicinity is because the lord jesus christ is who he says he is because he suffered and died and he rose from the grave right and we've been constituted as members of his body so he is at the head we are his members he acts by the divine power and distributes the merits of his graces to all those who are bound up in him by baptism and as a result of which we can be of service to one another because christ has knit us into one so there's a real principle of our unity it's our faith in the lord jesus christ and as a result of which we can be of service to another people without like condescending to them or like making of them a charity case it's because we recognize in them one who is also a member of a part of the body of christ actually you know for the baptized or potentially for those not yet um so i think like that i mean that's what informs the service of the missionaries of charity for instance like they had this one aids hospice they continue to run it in new york although there are far fewer men there with aids uh and and like for a period of 15 years every single man who came through their doors was either he came baptized or he left baptized it's awesome they're like i mean that's kind of how they would ask them you know before they went to bed each night like have you been baptized do you want to be baptized can you because we can pep you know if you'd like but that should be that should be the nature of our faith and of our service to the board should be it should be bound up uh with with the wholeness right with the entirety of the christian faith to the second reading then a reading from the first letter of saint john beloved everyone who believes that jesus is the christ is begotten by god and everyone who loves the father loves also the one begotten by him in this way we know that we love the children of god when we love god and obey his commandments for the love of god is this that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome for whoever is begotten by god conquers the world and the victory that conquers the world is our faith who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that jesus is the son of god this is the one who came through water and blood jesus christ not by water alone but by water and blood the spirit is the one that testifies and the spirit is truth the word of the lord thanks be to god so something that you'll often hear when reading the scriptures with the church is that we should uh read particular passages canonically so you can't just take a particular passage in isolation you read it in light of the rest of the sacred scriptures so like for instance when you read in romans 5 that we are justified by faith okay that's to be read with james two that faith without works is dead and that's to be read with first john 5. so we have this line here in the middle of this text in this way we know that we love the children of god when we love god and obey his commandments for the love of god is this that we keep his commandments this particular text you know is closely tied to an earlier passage in 1st john where it says if i say that i love god and hate my brother i am a liar and the love of god is not within me so there's this sense that okay god gives you faith but that faith has to breathe forth love that faith has to be informed there's a theological tradition which speaks of faith as either formed or unformed when it's unformed it lacks charity but when it's formed it has the fullness of charity and so that faith has its um you know it it's it's capacitated to perform truly uh genuinely charitable works and when we see those works right like the scripture talks to talks about in this passage when we obey his commandments right we know that faith is operative in that person's life it's not to say like if you do the things then you are a faithful person it's to say that the things testify to the presence of the faith and so again this informs our practice of mercy we don't set about to do merciful works in a kind of frantic or frenetic spirit for fear that were we not to do them everything will go to pot and you know the faith just doesn't seem to have chops unless we unless we act in this particular way it's like no right the reason for which we are moved to perform acts of mercy is because the faith alive within our hearts breathes forth love right because the faith alive within our hearts is intimately bound up with the life of charity so again it all hangs together right there's no you know social justice without the rest of the faith nor is there the rest of the faith without the you know ministry to those who are in need the uh you know the display of mercy and the heart of the church it seems that the hinge point for all of this at least coming coming from this reading and certainly within the faith in a broader context the hinge point of what everything that father gregory just said but also what john is preaching in this letter is his obedience and the virtue of obedience and being obedient to the father and this may raise questions well for well perhaps less so for us as religious because we do take evolve obedience to our superiors so it's very clear to whom we have promised obedience and to whom we need to be obedient i guess it's a little more clear for children that they owe obedience to their fathers to their teachers and you know but it's also maybe less clear for adults out in the world who are not professed religious or neither children to whom they owe obedience i get but just in a sort of brief way uh we first and foremost obedience to god to christ to the truth and to the truth and as as proclaimed protected and promoted by the church also our civil authorities you know all these in different ways we owe obedience to um to different things but primarily to god and often one of the one of the critiques levied against faith or religion or belief is that the obedience to the to the dogma obedience to some god is somehow trapping stifling burdensome but in reality if we are to read the gospel and look at the christian life and look at the saints who live these virtues in imitation of christ this obedience is is freeing because obedience to god is not is not a way for god to manipulate and control we can think back the great example of the ten commandments obedience to that law the ten commandments are not things that are imposed externally upon us that are foreign or or that but really are expressions of what it means to be a human being to be a human being not and not enslaved to sin but in but in a sense as saint paul talks about as slaves to christ slaves to the one who loves us and to the one who wants to set us free so the virtue of obedience and the virtues in general as we've talked about on different episodes and in different contexts the virtues are really an imitation of christ and this obedience here is an imitation of christ who is obedient to the father and through this imitation of christ through these through these graces of our lord's mercy and his resurrection we are transformed elevated freed from the stranglehold of sin so that we can be made into the men and women our lord has created for us and there's a great joy in this and not just a great joy but a great victory as john says that for whoever is begotten by god conquers the world conquers the world it's it's not just does well or does good things you know as far as like serving people conquers the world it's it's beautiful it's it's incredibly empowering and rich and something that we ought to uh uh to uh have great hope and faith in as christians while i appreciate father gregory's remarks i did find them lacking in the sense that there was no invocation of some obscure principle of trinitarian theology um because it's just glaring it's so obvious here in this in this curriculum um from first john uh so so i have to do it you know and this it's when i started talking about the trinity buckle up because i can basically i can basically say see this shamrock you know it's a wonderful thing it has three parts no uh but here john presents john presents um the the trinitarian mystery in a way that is just so compelling because we see that the way that we the way that we enter into the the dynamic relationship of the love of god is through the sun everyone who believes that jesus is the christ is begotten by by god everyone who loves the father loves also the one begotten by him and so it's this this uh invocation of the name of christ this invitation by our holy baptism and that we get invited into the sharing of love that that is the the heart of the mystery of the trinity at the end of the passage we see that we see that we can be we can be reborn we receive this new life we enter this invitation we accept this invitation we enter this mystery of love by receiving the gift of the spirit um and this gift of the spirit allows us to testify to this love so it's through christ that we receive this participation into this mystery of love and it's the spirit who allows us to speak of this mystery of love the way that it's transformed our lives how's that father gregory i'd say it was good so father son holy spirit three gods oh wait [Laughter] uh-huh great all right let's move to the gospel for before we get into more trouble well father patrick bring us read us the gospel please a reading from the holy gospel according to john on the evening of the first day of the week when the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the jews jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them peace be with you when he had said this he showed them his hands and his side the disciples rejoiced when they saw the lord jesus said to them again peace be with you as the father sent me so i send you and when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them receive the holy spirit whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and whose sins you retain are retained thomas called didymus one of the twelve was not with him when jesus came so the other disciples said to him we have seen the lord but he said to them unless i see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side i will not believe now a week later his disciples were again inside and thomas was with them jesus came although the doors were locked and stood in their midst and said peace be with you then he said to thomas put your finger here and see my hands and bring your hand and put it into my side and do not be unbelieving but believe thomas answered and said to him my lord and my god jesus said to him have you come to believe because you have seen me blessed are those who have not seen and have believed now jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book but these are written that you may come to believe that jesus is the christ the son of god and that through this belief you may have life in his name the gospel of the lord prays to you lord jesus christ this passage from the 20th chapter of the gospel of john as we've already said institutes the sacrament of penance when our lord says receive the holy spirit whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and whose sins you retain are retained the lord in in the in his resurrection comes to the apostles um to give them the the the ability the power to forgive sins to bestow mercy uh we going as father patrick was saying at the top of the episode if you haven't gone to confession well go to confession i think that it's uh he's right he is right in that yeah it's not just what i think it's the truth that the that as father patrick was saying you can consider um his call to confession a personal invitation to go to confession if you haven't been in a long time or if you've just been a couple weeks ago and why why is that why is the church so insistent um why should the church be so insistent on receiving the sacrament of penance uh he's holding up a sign if you're listening it says confess now uh he's really adamant um why is the church so adamant why is it just so insistent on this well because it's in the confessional it's in this sacrament that our lord bestows and gives to the church this great gift where we encounter the lord's mercy without reserve there is no condition on our lord's mercy if we can bring to him our sins if we confess our sins he promises to forgive us our sins and not just as a sort of transaction of input sin output forgiveness but as an encounter with our father who loves us who wants to bestow on us his mercy to free us to live with him to free us from the bonds of sin and death one of the um the important things to i think that we are up against in our contemporary culture is this idea of the this sort of ultra civic virtue of tolerance and i would say that this might be i i think tolerance is is um is is a cheap virtue and why is it a cheap virtue it's a cheap virtue because tolerance sees recognizes it the good thing about tolerance is that it does recognize where a person is you know their their gifts their talents their sufferings their weaknesses it's a recognition but tolerance stops there it doesn't call to something beyond itself mercy like tolerance recognizes where somebody is their gifts their talents their abilities but also their brokenness the places where they need healing but it's mercy that calls to healing and it's mercy that calls us to greatness and out of our suffering and out of our brokenness that's the difference that we have to remember as christians we're called to be merciful to love people and to bring them to christ and allow christ mercy and love to to elevate them to transform their brokenness to allow god to be with us with them in our suffering because it's only god who gives meaning to the suffering it's only god who is able to change that suffering and to use that suffering whatever it may be and bring from it new life just as his resurrection so on this divine mercy sunday if you have not been to confession in a while as father patrick has i too invite you to go to the confessional to have that courage to conquer the world that we heard in our second reading and and conquer those butterflies those fears um that the pride that we might have that might prevent us and and um you know darken that door of the confessional to submit ourselves in a beautiful way to the mercy that god is waiting to offer us uh i think it was last episode father jacob burcher made a joke about you know us not sleeping more than two hours a night i like to jokingly say that i don't so much sleep as just wait for the morning but um that's helpful because um because so too when it comes to obscure points of trinity trinitarian doctrine i don't sleep on them i just wait for the right opportunity and uh i would like to say that i was not so much omitting as i was biding my time because what you are about to hear friends is some obscure trinitarian doctrine so this particular gospel is uh it's a gold mine it's awesome it's beautiful and it's one that saint thomas aquinas loves with great care and tenderness because he acknowledges in it or he identifies in it one of the visible missions of the holy spirit so saint thomas speaks of these missions as the sending forth of the persons of the most blessed trinity from uh the kind of interior life of the blessed trinity into creation as it were so a mission identifies when a person of the blessed mos most blessed trinity becomes present somewhere in a way that formerly he was not so like the incarnation his visible mission of the sun and he identifies four visible missions of the holy spirit so the descent of the dove at the baptism the enveloping cloud at the transfiguration the one that everyone's thinking of which is the tongues of flame at pentecost but there's a fourth one which is weird but one that st thomas loves and that's when christ breathes on the apostles in the upper room a kind of sending forth of the holy spirit right which is associated here with the sacrament of penance and this is where we see the origin of mercy right this is where mercy ultimately comes from this is where mercy is first given because there's no mercy within the trinity right but there's there's mercy from god to creation because what is mercy mercy is when you identify something miserable and then you work to relieve it so god identifies us as miserable and then works to relieve it how by giving of himself by sending his son and the holy spirit right visibly into the world so that we can lay hold of them right invisibly into our hearts so that way we can be made like unto them and the way in which we can experience this divine mercy most powerfully is in the sacrament of confession so the sending of the spirit is actually associated with the very sacrament whereby our souls are cleansed and more perfectly configured to the most blessed trinity in the heart of which or at the heart of which we are meant to abide forever so i will say this to you father patrick have you been with me this long and still you do not know me one of the extraordinary dimensions of divine mercy um about which the sisters of our lady of mercy that is the sisters that run the shrine of divine mercy in krakow one of the dimensions they emphasize profoundly is the idea of trust for them this spirituality comes from the words on the the image of divine mercy and that revelation that jesus made to his beloved sister faustina and the image of divine mercy bears the words that saying jesus i trust in you so the idea of trust is very important it's not it's not always thought of as being so intimately connected to divine mercy but the reason i think it's so important is that um if we have this wound if we have this brokenness um we need a confidence in the divine physician to be able to heal us because otherwise the wound just remains hidden and it's often that fear like father jacob bertrand mentioned or you know frankly just a lack of trust that what the lord will do in our lives is really what is truly good for us or that it's actually what we need or that it will actually heal us so in the gospels jesus assures us that the remission of our sins is good for us by connecting so many of these moments of forgiveness with moments of physical healing it's the lord teaching us that as he forgives sins he heals us he makes us whole he doesn't just restore us but he elevates us to the life of grace and makes available for us new horizons of life so this is the virtue that i commend to you this day as we think about divine mercy and trust have confidence in the lord in his plans for you and in his invitation to receive his mercy today so on this divine mercy sunday as we already have we again encourage you to seek out our lord's mercy in the sacrament but also to live lives that reflect our lord's mercy to live virtue of trust that our lord is confessed now father patrick's sign is up again it's like he's on a a hotline or something and you know it's like call now no confess now um so to take advantage that may seem a weird way to say it but take advantage of our lord's love is mercy um and and come to him the you know the merciful father that he is he's awaiting um a few announcements before we before we pray not announcements um announcements they're announcements i'm going to announce things so they're announcements reminders uh reminders exhortations encouragements not that one no we're not commercials so commercials there we have so as always you know feel free to like share comment and and promote our podcast we have as we've mentioned the last couple episodes some new easter merchandise a new sweatshirt online so check that out comes in lovely colors blue gray and maroon if you're looking as father patrick said on our last lecture episode for those chilly spring evenings something to dawn father gregory is not appreciating that but you know it's a festive sweatshirt so you can you can wear that um we have a retreat coming up in july july 23 through 25th as it is in heaven um a godsplaining retreat in person in in long island i believe the town is huntington is that right father patrick i always forget the town that's right huntington new york so check out the website our events tab there um thank you to our sponsors if you'd like if you know to be one of our sponsors uh you can always check that out at patreon i think that's all i have and i'm not going to ask them if they have anything else because i know i have the complete list and i don't need their help so that's it all right well let's finish out at least with uh with the solemn blessing from divine mercy sunday may god who by the resurrection of his only begotten son was pleased to confer on you the gift of redemption and of adoption give you gladness by his blessing may he by whose redeeming work you have received the gift of everlasting freedom make you heirs to en to an eternal heritance and may you who have already risen with christ and baptism through faith by living in a right manner on this earth be united to him in the homeland of heaven through christ our lord amen thanks as always for tuning in to godsplaining no of our prayers for you please pray for us and until next time god bless thanks for listening to god's planning a work of the dominican friars of the province of saint joseph follow us on facebook twitter and instagram leave a review on your podcast app and visit us at godsplaining.org you

Channel: Godsplaining Podcast

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Keywords: catholic, dominican friars, theology, philosophy, religion, faith, order of preachers, godsplaining, seekers, Truth, preaching, questions, searching, prayer, meditation, #lectio, #bible, #catholicchurch, #frgregorypine, #divinemercy, #mercy, #washingtondc, #opeast, #dominican, #catholicpriest, #priest

Id: bjwRdKG0T9k

Length: 33min 53sec (2033 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021