SOUL SEARCH

What Mercy Really Is

By Fr. Johnny Go, SJ

School Director

Posted Monday, April 04, 2005 10:25 AM

Homily delivered by Fr. Johnny C. Go, SJ during the Sunday of Divince Mercy last April 03, 2005 (The Day after the Death of Pope John Paul II)

That’s a strange scene that the Gospel paints for us today: Our Lord showing off his wounds.

There’s something wrong with the picture.

Think about it: To the amazement of the disciples, Jesus, who was killed a few days ago and whom, by the way, they had all abandoned—appears to them! And if that’s not amazing enough, he does not appear as a ghost or as spirit, but in the flesh—with a body. In fact, they can touch him and he can eat! We know it’s not his old body, but a new one, a “resurrected” body because in the resurrection appearances, the disciples don’t always readily recognize the Lord. But the most amazing thing of all—and this is what I think is wrong with the picture—is that in his new body, Jesus decides to keep his wounds and shows them off.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to get myself a new body, I’m probably not going to keep the wounds and the scars. In fact, while I’m at it, I may as well change a lot of other things about the way I look that I’m not happy about: say, my height, or maybe my weight, my face, etc. Come to think of it, many people don’t even wait for the resurrection to change their appearance.

So, a question that’s begging to be asked is: Why? Why would our Lord insist on keeping his wounds? Why show off the scars?

Of course, the obvious answer is people need to see that it all really did happen. People like Thomas. And it’s true then as it is now. The Doubting Thomas in us need to be reminded: The wounds of Christ are the most eloquent icons of Divine Mercy because they show us what God is willing to go through out of mercy and love for us.

But today, as we mourn the passing of the Holy Father, and as we remember that great man and his works, what the Lord does in showing off his wounds acquires additional significance.

As we know, the media has been quite bewildered by the Pope’s attitude and actions towards his own illness and suffering. In a world that frowns upon pain and is ashamed of suffering, the media has been quite puzzled by the Pope’s insistence on suffering in public—showing off his wounds, as it were. In fact, there’s been some clamor for his resignation because the world just couldn’t make sense of the situation: A frail and sick 80 year old ruling a Church with over a billion members all over the world.

Death has a way of summing up a person’s life; it has a way of making us understand his words and actions. Today, as the entire Church and the entire world mourn the death of Pope John Paul II, I think we understand finally a little bit more of what he was trying to do. The Holy Father was trying to teach us what the Lord was trying to teach us about suffering: Yes, all suffering is evil, and we must do what we can to prevent it, but not at all cost. In this imperfect world of ours, in this “valley of tears,” the most Christian way of dealing with suffering is not by running from it or eliminating it at all costs—because unfortunately, we don’t always have the power to do that. Rather, when suffering is inevitable, we should embrace it; but as the Lord has done with his passion, and as the Holy Father has done with his own illness, we should also transform it through our love.

And as it turns out, the Lord has chosen to keep his wounds and show them for the same reason that I suspect the Holy Father has decided to suffer before the world: To teach us that suffering can be meaningful and can be redemptive; to show us that love makes suffering redemptive; and to help us to accept our suffering with love.

And so my dear brothers and sisters, on this Sunday of the Divine Mercy, we are being offered an important and subversive lesson about mercy and suffering by today’s Gospel and the life of the Holy Father: That contrary to what a lot of us believe today, and contrary to what the world keeps telling us, mercy isn’t about ending suffering, our own or those of others. Rather, mercy—at least, divine mercy, that is, God’s brand of mercy—is about enduring suffering and helping others to endure it with love.

JOHNNY C. GO, SJ

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