On May 5, 2000, Pope John Paul II proclaimed the Second Sunday of Easter "Divine Mercy Sunday."

Most of us know the origin of the Divine Mercy Devotion: Back in 1931, a young Polish nun, Sr. Faustina Kowalska, saw a vision of Jesus with two rays of light coming out of his heart. Jesus told her to have a painting produced replicating the vision, and to have it signed, "Jesus, I trust in you!"

Over the next 7 years, the Lord gave Faustina numerous private revelations concerning his merciful love. These she recorded in a diary, as Jesus had instructed her to do. Fr. George Kosicki—an authority on the Divine Mercy devotion—has said that through these revelations, "Jesus taught the young nun that his mercy is unlimited and available even to the greatest sinners. He revealed special ways for people to respond to his mercy in their lives, and he gave her several promises for those who would trust his mercy and show mercy to others."

On April 30^th two years ago, Faustina was canonized a saint by Pope John Paul II.

Now why is this so important?

First of all, it’s important because it’s only through the mercy of God that we are saved! As St. Paul tells us in Titus 3: 5, "[God] saved us; not because of any righteous deeds we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the baptism of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." Jesus came—and died—and rose—and poured out his Spirit—and gave us the sacraments—out of his great mercy.

Now on this side of the grave, mercy is important for yet another reason. It’s important because it’s an indispensable key to many earthly blessings, including the blessing of peace. Peace always has a price when the people seeking it are sinful (which we all are!); and the price is mercy! Without mercy, hurts very quickly become resentments, and resentments lead to hatred, and hatred leads to violence and sometimes death. Need any proof of this? Just look at the situation in the Middle East during the last 3 or 4 months. Not even Passover was off limits to the violence this year. On March 27, at a hotel in Netanya, Israel, a suicide bomber blew himself up and killed more than two dozen people as they were beginning their Seder meal. Between Arabs and Israelis there is very little if any mercy right now: there is simply violence and retaliation, leading to more violence and more retaliation. It’s a vicious cycle which will not improve until the search for justice is coupled with a willingness to show some mercy—by people on both sides.

Let me now share with you what I would call "Mercy’s Four-Step Peace Plan." This applies not only to nations, but also to families, and other smaller communities of people. If you want lasting peace in any setting where sinners happen to reside—your marriage, your family, your workplace, your town, your society—four things need to occur. First, there must be mercy for me; second, there must be mercy for you; third, there must be mercy for you through me; and finally there must be mercy for me through you.

First, there must be mercy for me. I need to believe in God’s mercy, and to some extent I must experience God’s mercy, or I will be a bitter, angry person. (And wherever there’s a bitter, angry person, there is no peace.) In Hebrews 4: 16 it says, "Let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor and to find help in time of need." That’s what we do in Confession: we approach the throne of God’s grace—grace which can wash away any and every sin! Jesus said to Faustina, "Tell souls where they are to look for solace; that is, in the Tribunal of mercy [the Sacrament of Reconciliation]." (Diary, # 1448) Do you believe this? Hopefully you do, because the peace process depends on it.

But if it’s true for me, then I must accept the fact that it’s true for everybody else (even for my enemies, even for the people who hate me and hurt me and persecute me!): if it’s "mercy for me," then it must also be "mercy for you!" St. Paul said in 1 Timothy 1 that God had made him an example for all future believers. Paul’s message was: Since God was so merciful to me when I repented of my terrible sins against the Church, you can be confident that he'll also be merciful to you when you sincerely repent of whatever you’ve done.

Paul excluded no one from the possibility of experiencing God’s mercy! Neither can we, if we want to be people of peace. One of the reasons that the terrorists of September 11 acted as they did is because they excluded us Americans from the possibility of mercy. I hope you realize that. They believed God would be merciful to them, but not to us. In their minds, Americans were simply infidels who should be destroyed.

Mercy for me; mercy for you; then there must be mercy for you through me and mercy for me through you. Here’s where it can get awfully difficult—which is why lasting peace can be so hard to achieve. We must be willing to extend God’s mercy to one another through forgiveness. God’s mercy must come to me through you when I offend you, and God’s mercy must come to you through me when you offend me. Pope John Paul II has given this message to the world whenever he’s asked forgiveness of a particular group for the sins that Catholics have committed against them. He has said, in effect, "We forgive, and we ask you to forgive us."

One of the reasons, of course, that the Holy Father has done this so often is to set an example for the rest of the world! He’s hoped that other groups would follow his lead and also ask for forgiveness. Believe it or not, Catholics are not the only ones who have sinned in the last two millennia! Protestants and Jews and Moslems and Agnostics and Atheists have also done horrible things. I wonder—if Arabs and Israelis had followed the pope’s example of asking forgiveness, would we be seeing such terrible violence in the Middle East right now? I think not.

If you look carefully at today’s Gospel story from John 20, you see "Mercy’s Four Step Peace Plan" lived out beautifully. The risen Christ appears to the apostles in the upper room twice, and each time he greets them with the same words: "Peace be with you." In that greeting, he extends them his mercy. Remember, the apostles had all deserted Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. They all needed his forgiveness. In extending them peace, he was extending his mercy and pardon to them for what they had done. And this pardon was given to all! Each of the apostles could have said to the others, "Jesus has extended his mercy to me, and he’s extended it to you."

But the apostles also needed to forgive one another! They not only had let Jesus down; they had also let one another down. Instead of helping one another to hang in there and stand firm on Holy Thursday night, they had a contest to see who get out of Gethsemane the fastest! This mutual forgiveness was necessary for there to be real peace among them. Did they do it? Did they show God’s mercy to one another and fulfill steps 3 and 4 of "Mercy’s Four-Step Peace Plan?" Here, I would say, the answer comes from silence. There is not a shred of biblical evidence that the apostles ever harbored resentments toward one another. John never said to Peter, "How could you have been such a wimp on Holy Thursday?!" There’s no biblical record of the ten reprimanding Thomas for his disbelief after the Lord finally appeared to him the Sunday after Easter.

Each realized he had fallen out of weakness, so each was more than willing to extend God’s mercy to the others. And thus there was peace.