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Vatican Radio
April 12 2015
Pope Francis: Divine Mercy Sunday homily
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica
on Sunday morning - the Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday,
sometimes called Quasimodo Sunday after the first word of the entrance
antiphon, which sings of how we are to desire, like newborn babes, the
pure spiritual milk that shall nourish us on our way to salvation -
with the Patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church, His Beatitude
Nerses Bedros XIX, and in the presence of His Holiness Karekin II,
Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of
the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
During the course of the liturgy, the Holy Father declared St. Gregory
of Narek - a 10th century Armenian monk and mystic - Doctor of the
Church.
The Mass is also marking the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the
Medz Yeghern, in which as many as 1.5 million Armenians perished under
the Ottoman Empire. Below, please find the official English
translation of the Holy Father's prepared homily.
***************
Saint John, who was in the Upper Room with the other disciples on the
evening of the first day after the Sabbath, tells us that Jesus came
and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you!" and he showed
them his hands and his side (Jn 20:19-20); he showed them his wounds.
And in this way they realized that it was not an apparition: it was
truly him, the Lord, and they were filled with joy.
On the eighth day Jesus came once again into the Upper Room and showed
his wounds to Thomas, so that he could touch them as he had wished to,
in order to believe and thus become himself a witness to the
Resurrection.
To us also, on this Sunday which Saint John Paul II wished to dedicate
to Divine Mercy, the Lord shows us, through the Gospel, his wounds.
They are wounds of mercy. It is true: the wounds of Jesus are wounds
of mercy.
Jesus invites us to behold these wounds, to touch them as Thomas did,
to heal our lack of belief. Above all, he invites us to enter into
the mystery of these wounds, which is the mystery of his merciful
love.
Through these wounds, as in a light-filled opening, we can see the
entire mystery of Christ and of God: his Passion, his earthly life -
filled with compassion for the weak and the sick - his incarnation in
the womb of Mary. And we can retrace the whole history of salvation:
the prophecies - especially about the Servant of the Lord, the Psalms,
the Law and the Covenant; to the liberation from Egypt, to the first
Passover and to the blood of the slaughtered lambs; and again from the
Patriarchs to Abraham, and then all the way back to Abel, whose blood
cried out from the earth. All of this we can see in the wounds of
Jesus, crucified and risen; with Mary, in her Magnificat, we can
perceive that, "His mercy extends from generation to generation" (cf.
Lk 1:50).
Faced with the tragic events of human history we can feel crushed at
times, asking ourselves, "Why?". Humanity's evil can appear in the
world like an abyss, a great void: empty of love, empty of goodness,
empty of life. And so we ask: how can we fill this abyss? For us it
is impossible; only God can fill this emptiness that evil brings to
our hearts and to human history. It is Jesus, God made man, who died
on the Cross and who fills the abyss of sin with the depth of his
mercy.
Saint Bernard, in one of his commentaries on the Canticle of Canticles
(Sermon 61, 3-5: Opera Omnia, 2, 150-151), reflects precisely on the
mystery of the Lord's wounds, using forceful and even bold expressions
which we do well to repeat today. He says that "through these sacred
wounds we can see the secret of [Christ's] heart, the great mystery of
love, the sincerity of his mercy with which he visited us from on
high".
Brothers and sisters, behold the way which God has opened for us to
finally go out from our slavery to sin and death, and thus enter into
the land of life and peace. Jesus, crucified and risen, is the way
and his wounds are especially full of mercy.
The saints teach us that the world is changed beginning with the
conversion of one's own heart, and that this happens through the mercy
of God. And so, whether faced with my own sins or the great tragedies
of the world, "my conscience would be distressed, but it would not be
in turmoil, for I would recall the wounds of the Lord: 'he was wounded
for our iniquities' (Is 53:5). What sin is there so deadly that it
cannot be pardoned by the death of Christ?" (ibid.).
Keeping our gaze on the wounds of the Risen Jesus, we can sing with
the Church: "His love endures forever" (Ps 117:2); eternal is his
mercy. And with these words impressed on our hearts, let us go forth
along the paths of history, led by the hand of our Lord and Saviour,
our life and our hope.
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/04/12/pope_francis_divine_mercy_sunday_homily/1136205
April 12 2015
Pope Francis: Divine Mercy Sunday homily
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica
on Sunday morning - the Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday,
sometimes called Quasimodo Sunday after the first word of the entrance
antiphon, which sings of how we are to desire, like newborn babes, the
pure spiritual milk that shall nourish us on our way to salvation -
with the Patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church, His Beatitude
Nerses Bedros XIX, and in the presence of His Holiness Karekin II,
Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of
the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
During the course of the liturgy, the Holy Father declared St. Gregory
of Narek - a 10th century Armenian monk and mystic - Doctor of the
Church.
The Mass is also marking the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the
Medz Yeghern, in which as many as 1.5 million Armenians perished under
the Ottoman Empire. Below, please find the official English
translation of the Holy Father's prepared homily.
***************
Saint John, who was in the Upper Room with the other disciples on the
evening of the first day after the Sabbath, tells us that Jesus came
and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you!" and he showed
them his hands and his side (Jn 20:19-20); he showed them his wounds.
And in this way they realized that it was not an apparition: it was
truly him, the Lord, and they were filled with joy.
On the eighth day Jesus came once again into the Upper Room and showed
his wounds to Thomas, so that he could touch them as he had wished to,
in order to believe and thus become himself a witness to the
Resurrection.
To us also, on this Sunday which Saint John Paul II wished to dedicate
to Divine Mercy, the Lord shows us, through the Gospel, his wounds.
They are wounds of mercy. It is true: the wounds of Jesus are wounds
of mercy.
Jesus invites us to behold these wounds, to touch them as Thomas did,
to heal our lack of belief. Above all, he invites us to enter into
the mystery of these wounds, which is the mystery of his merciful
love.
Through these wounds, as in a light-filled opening, we can see the
entire mystery of Christ and of God: his Passion, his earthly life -
filled with compassion for the weak and the sick - his incarnation in
the womb of Mary. And we can retrace the whole history of salvation:
the prophecies - especially about the Servant of the Lord, the Psalms,
the Law and the Covenant; to the liberation from Egypt, to the first
Passover and to the blood of the slaughtered lambs; and again from the
Patriarchs to Abraham, and then all the way back to Abel, whose blood
cried out from the earth. All of this we can see in the wounds of
Jesus, crucified and risen; with Mary, in her Magnificat, we can
perceive that, "His mercy extends from generation to generation" (cf.
Lk 1:50).
Faced with the tragic events of human history we can feel crushed at
times, asking ourselves, "Why?". Humanity's evil can appear in the
world like an abyss, a great void: empty of love, empty of goodness,
empty of life. And so we ask: how can we fill this abyss? For us it
is impossible; only God can fill this emptiness that evil brings to
our hearts and to human history. It is Jesus, God made man, who died
on the Cross and who fills the abyss of sin with the depth of his
mercy.
Saint Bernard, in one of his commentaries on the Canticle of Canticles
(Sermon 61, 3-5: Opera Omnia, 2, 150-151), reflects precisely on the
mystery of the Lord's wounds, using forceful and even bold expressions
which we do well to repeat today. He says that "through these sacred
wounds we can see the secret of [Christ's] heart, the great mystery of
love, the sincerity of his mercy with which he visited us from on
high".
Brothers and sisters, behold the way which God has opened for us to
finally go out from our slavery to sin and death, and thus enter into
the land of life and peace. Jesus, crucified and risen, is the way
and his wounds are especially full of mercy.
The saints teach us that the world is changed beginning with the
conversion of one's own heart, and that this happens through the mercy
of God. And so, whether faced with my own sins or the great tragedies
of the world, "my conscience would be distressed, but it would not be
in turmoil, for I would recall the wounds of the Lord: 'he was wounded
for our iniquities' (Is 53:5). What sin is there so deadly that it
cannot be pardoned by the death of Christ?" (ibid.).
Keeping our gaze on the wounds of the Risen Jesus, we can sing with
the Church: "His love endures forever" (Ps 117:2); eternal is his
mercy. And with these words impressed on our hearts, let us go forth
along the paths of history, led by the hand of our Lord and Saviour,
our life and our hope.
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/04/12/pope_francis_divine_mercy_sunday_homily/1136205