Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praised be Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Today we celebrate the eighth day of the Octave of Easter,
the day on which the events of the Gospel which we just read took place.
It is the appearance of our Lord to St. Thomas,
who doubted before and who insisted on having seen with his own eyes
and touched with his own hands our Lord raised from the dead before believing.
And so today we celebrate as well the Feast of the Divine Mercy,
desired by our Lord and told to St. Faustina.
And we see how appropriate it is that the Feast of the Divine Mercy occurs today
with the Novena beginning on Good Friday.
Because like no other event in the history of salvation,
do we see God's mercy revealed than in the mysteries we just celebrated
in these past days.
In the past nine days, beginning with Good Friday.
That is the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord.
That is the work of mercy on the part of God par excellence,
the redemption of the human race.
And so we begin the Novena of the Divine Mercy on Good Friday,
and it continues all through the Octave,
when we are giving all of our attention and focus to the risen Lord,
putting our faith and trust and hope in him.
And we see how the readings as well,
it's providential in the readings for the Mass
that we celebrate the Divine Mercy.
Because we see in the Epistle,
there's mention that Jesus Christ is the one
who came through water and blood.
And we see on the image of the Divine Mercy,
two rays issuing from our Lord's heart.
And when St. Faustina asked the meaning,
the significance of those rays,
our Lord said these words.
The two rays denote water and blood.
The pale ray stands for the water,
which makes souls righteous.
That is baptism.
The red ray stands for the blood,
which is the life of souls.
That's the Eucharist.
Baptism.
Which cleanses us from original sin
and brings us into the state of God's grace.
And the Eucharist,
which helps and aids to preserve us in God's grace.
And so these two, the blood and water,
which flowed forth from the pierced side of Christ
and which represent baptism and the Eucharist,
are a source of God's mercy for us.
Now we also read in the Gospel,
the practical way in which God dispenses His mercy here and now.
It is by means of the sacrament of penance.
And so we see in the Gospel as well,
the institution of this sacrament.
He said, therefore, to them,
Peace be to you.
As the Father hath sent me,
I also send you.
When He had said this,
He breathed on them,
and He said,
He said to them,
Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Whose sins you shall forgive,
they are forgiven them.
Whose sins you shall retain,
they are retained.
You see how God has covered all bases with His mercy.
Because the sacrament of penance was instituted for what?
To forgive sins committed after baptism.
To forgive them after baptism.
So this,
this too is a source of God's mercy.
Now there are a few promises that we want to keep in mind
that have to do with the divine mercy,
that have to do with confession and the Eucharist.
It is our Lord promised today that everyone who goes to confession
and who receives Holy Communion has remission of all guilt of sins
and also all punishment for sin.
You see, in this message of our Lord,
first of all, it reminds us the effects of sin.
That is, personal guilt.
If we know that something is offensive to God and we freely do it, guess what?
We're guilty.
We're personally guilty.
And second of all, what also comes with sin is due punishment.
Temporal punishment for venial sins.
Or eternal punishment.
Eternal punishment for mortal sins if the guilt has not been forgiven.
Now confession, normally speaking,
this was instituted to forgive the guilt of our sins.
We are no longer guilty for those sins.
We are forgiven of them.
But temporal punishment remains.
It's possible for one to be free of all temporal punishment in confession.
if they have a deep, profound, perfect contrition for those sins,
certainly the soul can leave the confessional entirely cleansed also of temporal punishment.
But we don't know if we have that interior disposition of perfect contrition.
We should strive to have that when we go to confession, but we can never be sure.
So temporal punishment can remain after confession.
It must be paid for by works of charity, by works of penance,
or in the next life, in the sufferings in purgatory.
As the book of Revelation says, nothing impure will enter heaven.
We have to be pure like gold.
Our souls have to be pure like gold in order to enter into the heavenly courts.
And so do you see the great promise that our Lord has made on this day,
the Feast of Miracles?
All mercy, all guilt of sins, and all temporal punishment removed
with confession and Holy Communion.
And this is not simply a plenary indulgence.
We're all familiar with plenary indulgences,
certain acts, devotional acts associated with confession, communion, prayers for the Pope.
But even in a plenary indulgence, in order to gain it,
one has to have,
as one of the conditions necessary,
complete detachment from all sin,
including venial sin.
And once again, this is a disposition that we should strive for,
but at the same time, we're never quite certain of.
Now notice our Lord, in His promise, makes no mention of that.
He doesn't call it a plenary indulgence.
He doesn't mention anything about attachment to sin.
He simply says,
And all guilt and punishment are removed.
And so what a great promise that we should strive to take advantage of this day.
It's given to us once a year, every year this day.
Now here at the Friary, we're going to be having devotions
in honor of the Divine Mercy this afternoon.
At 2 o'clock, confessions will begin.
At 2 o'clock, confessions will begin.
At 3 o'clock, confessions will begin.
clock we'll be praying the chaplet of divine mercy. Afterwards we'll venerate the relic of
Saint Faustina. So let's make use and take advantage of our Lord's promise, this great
grace of his mercy that he gives us today. In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.