Hi, I m Father Chris Alar and welcome to a special edition of Ask a Marian. Now, several
people from around the world have asked this same question, or close to it. Basically,
Father, tell us about Divine Mercy. We hear so much. Just summarize it for us. What does
it mean and how do we get these graces? Okay, now, let s first start with: when is Divine
Mercy? Most of you know it s the Sunday after Easter, coming up in just a couple days. Now,
why did Jesus say it has to be on this day? He said that because it does now something
very important. It completes what we call an Octave.
You see, when a Feast for the Jews was so big that couldn t be celebrated in one day,
they would celebrate in over eight days, and the biggest Octave we have in the Church now
is called the Easter Octave. Now, here s what s interesting. It starts on Easter Sunday,
not ends. Starts on Easter Sunday. That s the day Our Lord opened the door to Heaven.
Now, the next seven days, because what s the perfect number to the Jews? Okay. Seven, but
that is in regards to time or creation. So, the next seven days are symbolic of us in
this pilgrimage called life. Just like the Jews wandering around the desert
to find the Promised Land, we in our life are wandering around in this Valley of Tears
to find the Promised Land of Heaven. Now, then why didn t Jesus put it on the seventh
day? It had to be the eighth day because the number eight represents to the Jews eternity.
So, why s this all important? Okay, this is when Jesus comes for His Bride. Now, ya ll
know, you ve heard me say that Jesus is the Groom, we the Church are the Bride. When you
re at Mass and you make your um, procession up to, uh, uh, when you come up the isle to
receive Holy Communion, you are making your wedding march.
It is actually there. This is it. It is everything. So, when you are at a Catholic wedding, what
happens? The bride comes forward, and who s waiting for her at the Altar? The groom.
And Jesus is the Groom. And what happens? It s consummated. The bride and the groom
become one. So, in essence, Jesus the Groom actually enters into you and me, the Bride.
It s consummated. This is incredible. But, here s the point. Before we can do that, before
we can get there, and Jesus comes for His Bride, when? On that eighth day, eternity,
He wants to take His Bride Home forever to share with Him, to meet His Mother and His
Father. God the Father, Mary, His Mother. Now, here s the point. In order for Him to
do that on the eighth day, which means eternity, he wants us to be with Him now forever in
Heaven, when our seven-day pilgrimage, on life, of life, is over. The problem is He
can t do that if we have stain and there are two stains that can become problematic on
our wedding garment called our soul. That is sin, and what is the result of sin? The
result of sin is death and when we have that on our soul, we got to get rid of it. Now,
if we have sin, we also could have punishment that is due for our sins.
So, for instance, when we go into Confession, we are forgiven of our sins, if we have a
valid Confession, but the punishment may remain. Now, not eternal punishment, meaning hell.
That s gone, but, temporal punishment that is due for instance, in Purgatory, can stain
our soul, our wedding garment. So, Jesus can t take us to Heaven if we have anything on
our soul. So, when He comes on the eighth day, He wants us to be spotless. So, what
do we do? Well, there s way we can clean ourselves up.
Remember you can actually do your Purgatory here on earth. One of the ways: the Church
gives us a Plenary Indulgence. But, the problem with that is you can have no attachment to
sin, even venial. Good luck with that one because some of us are still, I still get
impatient, I m still gluttonous, I still, it just, it s a big issue. I still struggle
with maybe some thoughts that we shouldn t. so, it s difficult. So, what do we do? When
Jesus comes for His Bride on the eighth day, He s not going to find too many of us ready.
So, what he wants to find is all of us ready. So, He gives us a way to do that. That way
is called Divine Mercy Sunday, and on that day, that one day, in paragraph 699, Jesus
tells us, something we call the extraordinary promise. He says: on that day the soul that
will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion will receive complete forgiveness of not only
all sin, but all punishment due to sin. This is incredible. So, you ever hear yourself
say: gee I wish I can start over, I wish I can clean my slate. I wish I could just begin
again. You can. Now is the opportunity. So, God promises, Jesus says: on this one day.
What day? The eighth day. What is that? Divine Mercy Sunday. That the soul that goes to Confession.
Now remember, Confession does not have to be on that day. Confession could be any time
before as long as you re in a state of grace. So, try to get as close as you can, even on
Divine Mercy Sunday is fine but you have to be in a state of grace.
So, get to Confession, and if you can t because the Church is closed, do an Act of Contrition,
just telling God you re sorry. Alright, now, Jesus then says on that day go to Holy Communion.
Again, try to go to your Church. Receive Him in the Sacrament. If you can t, make a Spiritual
Communion just telling God that I m uniting with You, I want to be united with You. Come
into my heart like You did in Holy Communion. Now, the purpose of this is Jesus is saying:
I m giving you a way to be so spotless, so clean, so purified that you re ready on the
eighth day when I come for you. Now, any soul, any snake can crawl out of
the gutter, and go to Confession, and receive Holy Communion and get this grace.
Now, people are like: Father, I m too sinful. Yeah, your sins aren t greater than Jesus
Mercy, and so what you do is you go to Confession, sometime before or on that day. Communion
has to be on that day, Saturday night or on Sunday. Any Mass. It doesn t have to be at
three o clock prayer hour. Any Mass where you receive Holy Communion and if you can
t, join us Marian Fathers at 9am on Divine Mercy Sunday for our livestream or again at
noon and uh, uh going to 1:30 for the beginning of the Liturgy on EWTN on Divine Mercy Sunday.
Okay, so everybody, here s the deal. People are like: why is this Feast so great? It s
actually one of the greatest. In fact, Thomas the Apostle said in the Apostolic Constitutions
that we need a feast on the eighth day. This is the important day. And, Saint Augustine
said it s the Compendium of the Days of Mercy, he even said it s the highest of the Days.
Why? Because of this. Alright, this is what s fascinating. On Easter Sunday, Jesus opened
the Door to Heaven and that redeemed us. The Door is now open. The next seven days are
symbolic of the thing we call life, our pilgrimage on earth, looking for Heaven.
Once we get to the eighth day we enter into Eternity and now that Door is open because
He opened it on Easter Sunday. But now we actually go through it. That s why Saint Augustine
said Divine Mercy Sunday is actually the greatest of the Days. Now, he didn t call it that.
It was the Sunday in White, but this is the Day. Now, it s not sperate from Easter. Please
don t tell your Bishop: Father Chris said separate from Easter and it s greater. No.
Remember, I said they re one day. All eight days are celebrated as one. So please, don
t miss this grace. This grace of Divine Mercy Sunday will change you. As Father Seraphim
said never will your soul be cleaner than it is other than the moment of your original
Baptism than it is on that day, Divine Mercy Sunday.
And I want to finish with this. When you go to receive Holy Communion on that day or make
your Spiritual Communion, you need to complete the grace. Now remember, this isn t a magic
wand or a rabbit s foot. We can t continue to live in mortal sin and just say: hey it
sounds cool, give me the grace. No, you have to be willing to change your life and try.
Okay. Just try. But, here s what you got to do. This is the culmination of everything.
What you got to do is you got to come back to your pew, kneel down after receiving Holy
Communion and make this prayer, or at home if you did a Spiritual Communion, make this
prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a poor sinner. Jesus,
You promised Saint Faustina that the soul who has been to Confession [I have] and the
soul that receives Holy Communion [I just did], will receive the complete forgiveness
of not only sin, but all punishment. Please give me this grace. And He will or Jesus doesn
t keep His promises and nobody is going to claim that.
So, please join us on Divine Mercy Sunday. Receive this most incredible grace. And, may
Almighty God bless you and yours: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen