Divine Mercy Sunday (2022-04-24, 2nd Sunday Easter)

 Easter 2^nd Sunday    /  2022-04-24 –

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[_00-a_]  Many years ago, I was driving in car – I was the driver – down a street that I had walked, bicycled, or driven hundreds of times before. It was extremely familiar to me.  On this particular morning, I was on my way to a nearby train station to pick up a friend who had just arrived and was waiting for me.  Later that day, this friend and I plus two other friends – the 4 of us were driving to Portland (Maine) for the weekend. So, I mention that because while I was on my “short”  trip to the train station, I was already thinking about a much longer journey to Maine.

          The speed limit was 25 miles per hour. I was driving about 42 miles per hour. I was pulled over by the local police for speeding.

          I received a ticket for speeding.

[_00-b_]       And, I was very frustrated, mad, angry that I was given a ticket …and I was not in the mood to be reminded that this was really a relatively minor thing, and that I should take responsibility for my actions, and that speeding on a street where there is school, park, children is a dangerous combination.

          Worst of all, I did not want anyone to laugh at me. I was deadly serious about my frustration with the incident. My friend, whom I was picking up at the train station, thought the whole thing was hilarious.

          My friend grew up in NYC, lived in Manhattan, probably did not drive that much. What did she know?

          I wanted to be mad. I wanted to remain behind the locked door of my fault and my sin.  I had no sense of humor at that particular moment. It was ironic – perhaps appropriate – that we made the entire – longer trip – to Maine later that day – in my friend’s car. My friend did all the driving.  The journey did take my mind off the original incident. I was glad that we were going somewhere.

          It was ironic that I had to do no more driving. I did not take wheel at all later that day.

          There was a part of me that was still stuck at the original incident, “scene of the crime” with the police officer.

          Have you ever been stuck on, stuck in a rut regarding some fault or sinfulness or culpable error on your part, stuck in the past?

 

[_00-c_]      If so, the experience of the first disciples, of the Gospel today, may be present, may be manifest in you today. It is certainly manifest in me today, when I have trouble letting go, either of something that was done to me, or of something that I have done.

          At the incident with the police officer, I was tempted to blame for example the “way I was raised”… that was raised to be on time. Then again, if I had been raised to be on time, then I should have left earlier for the train station.

          In any case, becoming aware of of our own sinfulness, there is a sense in which we might easily blame someone else other than ourselves.

          Or, we may need to forgive someone else before we – or as we – repent of our own sinfulness.

         

[_00-d_]       In the Gospel today, the first disciples are locked behind closed doors. They are stuck in one place.

          And, it is ironic that they are “stuck” and hiding in the very place where Jesus had celebrated the Last Supper with them, in the room where He had said, “This is my body given up for you; this is the cup of my blood.”

          They are scared, anxious, and probably also angry, resentful that Jesus had been arrested and treated with such cruelty and died.

          Things had been going so well up until now.

          These disciples are called to make Jesus’ words from the Cross their own – “forgive them Father, they know not what they do.”

          For the person who has hurt you, and for the person who has hurt or offended me, we are called to make these words our own. Because some of the people who hurt us did not know what they were doing.

          Or, even if they did not know what they were doing – or should have known better – they could not have known exactly how it would play out in your life or my life.

          Forgive him, Father, Forgive her, Father,  Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.

 [_00-e_]  Recently, a movie and was released in theaters, starring Mark Wahlberg, about a Catholic priest with an unusual path to conversion, to forgiveness, to seminary, to priesthood.  He is also a former professional fighter, boxer who trades in his boxing gloves for a Bible and more. The title is “Father Stu” about a man who becomes a priest named Stuart Long.

          Having just seen the movie, I also noticed that during his faith journey and conversion, he has a similar attitude toward police officers and priests.

          He thinks – at times – that both of them are out to get him. He is arrested twice in the movie and argues with the police officers both times about their harassment and poor treatment of him. He is actually doing something wrong, but acts like he is the victim.

          When he goes to confession for the first time, to confess his sins to the priest, he treats the “Father” the “Padre” the “Priest” in a similar way. The future “Father Stuart Long” berates the priest for being self-righteous and not recognizing the priest himself is a sinner and is not “God”.

          I could not agree more. The priest himself – I myself and every priest – is a person in need of repentance and God’s grace and forgiveness. The question is not whether or not I am a sinner, but whether or not I am a repentant sinner. I also go to confession and take advantage of this sacrament, for my own well being and journey to God.

[_00-e_]       In the 27^th Psalm, we pray, the “Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom should I be a afraid?”

          Of whom are you afraid of? Whom am I afraid of?

           Yes, I can – at times – be afraid of others, afraid of how others might react to me. I fear my own laziness, my own selfishness.  I may also fear the outcomes and results of my sinfulness and selfishness.

          I fear getting pulled over. I fear being found out.

 [_01_]  Should I also fear the repentance and confession of my sins?

At one point in the movie, Father Stu, the young Father Stuart visits a prison to read the Bible and pray with the inmates.  He begins his sermon to those who are locked up to remind them that many people outside the prison may not want to talk to them, they may feel rejected. They may have no more phone calls. They may have used up their one phone call and the guards may be giving them a hard time. But God has not given up on them, nor on you. Make 1 more call. Turn back to God.

          What we bring to God is not just the “bad stuff” of our sins, because God does not just want the evil to be recycled, reduced and reused.

          God has a much greener and better environmental plan, God wants something good from us and from you, from me.

What God asks for is our repenantance, our sorrow for our sins. The sorrow for our sins is not equal to our sins. It is something God that exists in us to show that you can change, and be changed that you have not yet given up, regardless of where you have been “pulled over.”

 [_fin_]