On this Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, we remember the dedication of this day by Pope St. John Paul II in honor of St. Faustina’s vision of Christ, in which the Lord’s heart radiated divine mercy for the whole world. But what does mercy mean? It designates a type of compassion—a deep, loving identification with people in their suffering.

One of the most important words to describe God in the Old Testament is chesed, “tender mercy.” The New Testament version of this is found in the First Letter of John: “God is love,” agape. Everything else we say about God should be seen as an aspect of this chesed and this agape, and by participating in them, we participate most directly in the divine life.

In the vision of St. Faustina, a young nun who died in Krakow in 1938, the Lord’s sacred heart emanated rays of red and white light. The pale light signified Baptism, and the red light signified the Eucharist. It struck John Paul II as significant that Faustina died on the eve of Poland’s crucifixion at the hands of the Nazis, who invaded in 1939, and then the communists. He recognized the twentieth century as the century perhaps most marked by cruelty and violence, and hence most in need of the divine mercy. As pope, he made this devotion known throughout the world. Now people pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy all over the planet, pledging their trust in Jesus.

Let us remember to be merciful to others as the Father is merciful to us, offering especially to the needy the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. For “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40).

May God bless you,