Agnus Dei Presents!
Receive Divine Mercy — and When?
While the Lord has always dispensed His Divine Mercy to the faithful, since the declaration of Divine Mercy Sunday by John Paul II in the Great Jubilee Year of Mercy, it is more “official.”
Our God, however, always has a plan, and while He waited for Saint Faustina to reveal His Divine Mercy in its fullness — and then for a doubting Church to accept it — He has been busy dispensing it since the day of His Cross.
We can immediately think of the penitent thief on the Lord’s Right Hand, who received Divine Mercy when Jesus, from the Cross, forgave this man his sins.
But that was Good Friday.
Has the Lord ever previously dispensed the grace of Divine Mercy on what we now call Divine Mercy Sunday? And if so, when and to whom?
The answer is obviously we wouldn’t be writing this article if we didn’t believe that this was the case.
The key for us is that not only did the Lord do this, but He did it in a very significant way and to someone very famous.
The first recipient of Divine Mercy Sunday is mentioned in John’s Gospel. It is someone who was really in need of it, for he had walked with the Lord, talked with Him, and yet, after Jesus’ Resurrection, refused to believe.
This person was the unfortunate victim of not being with the Apostles that first Easter Sunday when Jesus’ disciples were behind a locked door and the Lord appeared to them. Ten Apostles saw the Resurrected Christ that evening and when they told this Apostle about the Lord's appearance, he said, “Except I shall see in His Hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into His side, I will not believe” John 20:25.
So what did Jesus do with this Apostle? The one we call today, “Doubting Thomas.”
Did Jesus say, “Forget you, Thomas! I gave you 10 Apostles to witness to you and you do not believe them? You’re out of here!”
No.
The Lord did not do that.
Instead, the Lord gave Doubting Thomas the greatest gift God can give any soul.
Jesus gave Thomas Divine Mercy.
“And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: ‘Peace be to you!’ ”
John 20:26
So what did Jesus do with Thomas when this disciple doubted the Lord’s Resurrection?
Jesus made an appearance and gave the doubting Apostle the evidence!
It is a fact that in the Jewish calculation of time, this event falls on what we now call Divine Mercy Sunday.
As we all know, the Lord does nothing by accident and having the Beloved Disciple record this astounding event, and ensuring we have the time frame as well, shows us exactly the depth of Jesus’ Divine Mercy.
It is a depth He continues to pour forth from His Wounds and Sacred Heart today — for those who will but accept it.
The Lord Jesus told Doubting Thomas — who will doubt no more after this incident — to “Put in thy finger hither, and see My Hands; and bring thither thy hand, and put it into My side, and be not faithless but believing” John 20:27.
The Lord Jesus is doing the same to the world today and every day.
He is making an appearance to us all through the miraculous Image of His Divine Mercy on the Shroud of Turin. It is on this ancient cloth that we can see with our own eyes the actual Blood and Water that gushed forth as a Fountain of Mercy for us!
It is here on this cloth that in a life-size photograph, we, too, can “bring thither” our hands and “put it into” His side!
It is here on this cloth, as so many believers know, that Jesus has ensured that there is a physiognomical match between His Face on the Divine Mercy Image and His Holy Face on the Shroud.
These, indeed, are no “coincidences.”
Our God of faith, who told Thomas “blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed” (John 20:29), knew full well that in the almost 2,000 years that would transpire since the doubting Apostle touched the Wounds of the Resurrected Christ, there would be a crisis of belief in the world.
A crisis of belief in the Church.
That is why Jesus has left us the gift of the Shroud of Turin.
It is to ensure that no could say, “I did not know.” “There was no evidence.” “It was impossible for me to personally see the Resurrected Christ.”
The Shroud ensures these are all invalid excuses.
And the same holds true for the Divine Mercy Image in the fact that the Lord has ensured it, too, matches the Holy Face on the Shroud.
That leaves us all with one factor that we all must adhere to if we expect to receive Jesus’ Divine Mercy.
All of us, no matter what our station in life — pope, president, prime minister, bishop, priest, laity, nun, or any human being we could possibly refer to on this planet — must all then closely follow and adhere to what Doubting Thomas did as an example for every person for time immemorial.
This is why the Holy Spirit ensured this Apostle’s story would be told and he would receive the title of “Doubting Thomas” until the Lord’s appearance to him on that first Divine Mercy Sunday.
It is even the reason why Thomas is equivalent to the word “twin”: for everyone on this planet is Thomas’ twin, whether as the “doubting” or believing twin.
We must all, then — whether it is before Jesus in His various manifestations under the guise of Bread and Wine in the Blessed Sacrament, as the Holy Child, the Crucified Christ on the Shroud, or in His Divine Mercy Image — ensure we bend our knees, bow our heads and, as John records the believing Thomas did, exclaim:
“My Lord and my God!”
© 2003 Agnus Dei Presents!
