3 April 2016
Sunday, 3 April 2016–Divine Mercy Sunday
Today’s Psalm is quite the understatement. We say in the response that God’s “love is everlasting,” but that doesn’t quite get at the sheer persistence of God. This isn’t just the enduring love that will keep someone standing outside a door until the beloved comes out. This is the love that busts down the door in order to give help, and will break down the door as many times as needed.
The Apostles have locked themselves in, but Jesus knows they can’t believe in Him and receive his love unless He goes through the door anyway. Francis Thompson’s poem The Hound of Heaven speaks of how he “fled [God] down labyrinthine ways,” but God always followed. Looking back on our own lives, each of us can think of times when God chased us down, time after time, out of love for us.
That God does this for love of us is the amazing thing, and it is what we celebrate today on Divine Mercy Sunday. Usually, when I am persistent, it is because what I am going after is something I need. Jesus didn’t need the apostles to believe in His resurrection–He would have been risen either way. He wanted them to experience that joy. God doesn’t need us to love Him. He wants us to experience that joy. God’s love is wonderfully gratuitous and unfailingly persistent–it is a mercy like no other.