The Incredible Power of Jesus’ Divine Mercy
Today we celebrate the Second Sunday of Easter. Our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II designated the Sunday after Easter Sunday to be Divine Mercy Sunday. Prayers for the intervention of Jesus’ Divine Mercy in human affairs are emphasized. There are many such prayers, most notably the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. This prayer was given by Jesus to Sister Maria Faustina, a Catholic nun who lived in Poland in the first part of the twentieth century. The Church promises that those who pray the Chaplet and receive the sacrament of Reconciliation will receive extraordinary graces. The Chaplet is prayed here at St. Hubert’s on Saturday mornings. All of you are welcome to join us.
God’s mercy is an active mercy. We need only look to our readings this (evening)(morning) to see the powerful effects in the early Church of God’s Divine Mercy. In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles overcome fear and doubt by healing the sick and driving out demons. Once wracked by doubt and fear when Jesus walked among them, the Resurrection and Pentecost had given them the courage to receive and practice Jesus’ Divine Mercy.
In our second reading we also see the apostle John paralyzed by fear and doubt. John is describing a revelatory encounter with Jesus. This encounter comes at the end of his life when he was in political exile and hard labor on the punishment island of Patmos. John’s revelation frightens him. Jesus responds in John’s revelation with His ever-present Divine Mercy. He reminds John, as he reminds all of us through this Scripture passage, that God has been and always will be with His people. His response to John’s fears and what John believes will be the doubt of his readers is simple but incredibly powerful: “Do not be afraid.”
Finally, in our Gospel from John, we have the classic story of doubting Thomas. Here Jesus’ Divine Mercy goes the extra mile. All that Jesus has done for the Apostles is not enough for the apostle Thomas, Thomas does not believe Jesus has risen from the dead. Seized by fear and doubt in the aftermath of the Crucifixion, he demands a private revelation. Jesus’ love for his disciples leads Him to appear to Thomas. He offers His Divine Mercy to Thomas with the words “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
For us, Jesus’ Divine Mercy can be just as powerful in overcoming our own doubts and fears. For Jesus’ Divine Mercy is a mercy that not only has as its root charity and forgiveness but also the key element of a change of heart in us that enables us to both receive and accept forgiveness and mercy. In this regard, I offer this story for your consideration.
The country of Rwanda is a small central African country of about eight million people. About 99% of the population belongs either to the Hutu tribe (about 85%) or the Tutsi tribe (about 14%). The country was a Belgian colony and is overwhelmingly Catholic, whether one is of Hutu or Tutsi background.
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For much of Rwanda’s history, the two major tribes have had a difficult relationship. In 1994 a radical Hutu faction overthrew a coalition government and implemented a horrible genocide against the Tutsis. Out of a population of eight million, 800,000 were slaughtered. Whole families were frequently hacked to death by machetes, swords and just about anything else on which Hutus could get their hands. Bodies lay in latrines and fields all around Rwanda. Even Catholic priests and nuns participated in the massacre, sometimes taking in fleeing Tutsis on the promise of sanctuary, and then turning them over the Hutus. Many other Catholic priests and nuns who refused to participate or were of Tutsi background were slaughtered as well.
The radical Hutu government was overthrown after a few bloody months and replaced by a new government of national reconciliation. But how to deal with the horrific massacres and their social and economic aftermath was and is a question the Rwandan government has grappled with ever since.
Responding to Pope John Paul II’s special devotion to the power of Jesus’ divine mercy, Catholic Relief Services has for a number of years now been promoting reconciliation and peace among the people of Rwanda. CRS staff had themselves been killed in the massacre, and the CRS presence in Rwanda had been devastated. In 1998, to prepare for the Great Jubilee Year of 2000 in the Catholic Church, the Rwandan bishops and CRS instituted a series of peace and justice commissions. Thousands of leaders have trained by CRS and the Rwandan dioceses to facilitate the work of the commissions. The commissions urged those who were responsible for the massacres to come forward and seek repentance, and those who were victims were called to forgive them.
Remarkably, neighbors who had lived side by side and then were caught up in the massacre on both sides began to visit each other. Jesus’ Divine Mercy was showered on the people of Rwanda, and Rwandans began to shower that mercy on each other. Throughout the country, because of the trust CRS and the Church still had, men and women confessed to brutal killings and lootings. All were required to ask for forgiveness in public and then visit the homes of survivors and ask for forgiveness directly.
To be sure, the process is not perfect. Nor is it a complete substitute for traditional punishment of such horrific crimes. But what is most remarkable is the reconciliation that HAS occurred. The killers and those who had family members have in some instances become friends. Jesus’ Divine Mercy is clearly present in many of the accounts.
For example, one woman named Drocella, a Tutsi, was separated from her children during the genocide. They stayed at home while she left to do errands in a nearby town. When the genocide began, Drocella returned home as quickly as she could. By the time she arrived, her eight children were dead. They had fled to their Hutu godfather’s home. They had hoped he would protect them. Instead, he gave them up to the killers. Drocella also lost several extended family members in the genocide. However, in the intervening years only one person came forward to confess and ask forgiveness, a man named Philippe. Her journey to forgive started much like the others. She recalled:
“After the genocide, I found myself alone. Everyone around me had died. I said, “Why don’t I go back to church and pray so that I can live again? My heart was very dark and broken. The priest encouraged me and others like me to forgive. I said, “I can’t go through this business of forgiving because of this man Philippe. I see him here. He was the first one to work with us in the church, to help the poor, to do all of the church activities which brought us together. But he was also the first one to kill my people.”
“So every time they started talking about the commission, I felt like my heart was ready to burst. It was heavy, and I wouldn’t get the message. But there was a very dynamic priest here. When he came to my parish, I would bend my head, because I knew why he came. He was coming to tell us to forgive. After the Mass, the priest would walk around and ask, “Where is she? Where is she? I would say, “Why is he looking for me? I lost all my people; my heart is almost going to burst; what does he want me for?
“The Word of God was very helpful to me. My heart is no longer as heavy as it used to be. I felt relieved and then I told one of the people who came to teach us, “You know I think I am going to forgive. I feel ready to forgive.”
Remarkably, through the power of Jesus’ Divine Mercy, and the human dignity work of CRS, Rwandans are the first people in human history to rebuild a nation composed of the perpetrators of genocide and the surviving victims. They still have a long way to go. But if people, brothers and sisters, who once killed each other in cold blood can now reconcile, and seek and provide forgiveness and mercy, cannot we also do so in our families, in our community, and in our world?
Brothers and sisters, let us all reflect on the lessons of Rwanda. Let us pray that we may all overcome our fears and doubts about Jesus’ Divine Mercy. May we practice an active mercy in our own lives, one that reflects Jesus’ Divine Mercy, a mercy that is a signpost on the road to salvation.