Divine Mercy Sunday

PATERSON  With one of the most diverse communities in the Paterson Diocese, St. Stephen Parish here marked Divine Mercy Sunday with a tri-lingual Mass celebrated in English, Polish and Spanish April 3. The feast was designated by St. John Paul II and has taken place on the Second Sunday of Easter since 2001. It is based on the diaries of a young Polish nun named St. Faustina Kowlaska and her encounters with Jesus, who presented himself to her as Divine Mercy during the 1930s.

Bishop Serratelli was main celebrant of the Mass with Father Dariusz Kaminski, pastor of St. Stephen’s, and several diocesan priests as concelebrants. They were wearing special vestments with the Jubilee Year of Mercy logo on them. Pope Francis announced the extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy last year at the time of Divine Mercy Sunday because of people’s need for God’s mercy and compassion. The Jubilee Year of Mercy began on the Feast of the Im­mac­ulate Conception, Dec. 8, and will concluded on Nov. 20, 2016, the Feast of Christ the King.

Father Kaminski has a special devotion to Divine Mercy. It started during his formative years in Poland where he was born. St. Stephen Parish honors the devotion to Divine Mercy year-round with holy hours twice a month, a pilgrim statue that travels from parishioners’ homes each week and with the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Divine Mercy.

At the start of the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass, three parishioners — one speaking in English, one in Polish and one in Spanish — thanked Bishop Serratelli for celebrating the feast of Divine Mercy with the St. Stephen’s community each year.

Bishop Serratelli said, “I’m very happy to be here today for the celebration of this great feast of Divine Mercy. It’s become a tradition, which I treasure and I am grateful to Father Dariusz for inviting me. This community is so full of faith and you continue to celebrate this great feast with zeal.”

In his homily, which he gave in both English and Spanish, the Bishop reflected on the day’s Gospel about St. Thomas, who doubted Jesus’ Resurrection until he could see and feel the wounds of Jesus.

“The Risen Jesus appears on Easter Sunday night to his confused and questioning disciples,” the bishop said. “He appears a week later to doubting Thomas so unwilling to trust the witness of others. Thomas sees the wound of Jesus and his doubt is gone. He now believes and proclaims, ‘My Lord and my God,’ the greatest acclamation of faith in the entire Gospel of St. John. So often we hear this Gospel lament about Thomas and his doubt. And we rightly hear about our own doubt and our own inability to believe simply because someone else has told us. We recognize in Thomas our need to touch the wounds, to feel the presence of the Risen Lord for ourselves, so we can come to faith.”

“This is only one part of today’s Gospel event,” the Bishop said. “The other part deals not with Thomas and his faith but with Jesus and his love for us. Exalted by the Father as Lord of all, the crucified Jesus now rules all creation. He has been raised up but he has not been removed from us. He is not removed from the pain and sorrow that we feel. He cares for us when we are confused, when we are doubting and when we fail. There is no sorrow, no doubt, no fear or apprehension, no matter how small in the eyes of others, that Jesus does not see and care about because of the greatness of his mercy for us.”

At the Divine Mercy Sunday celebration, four women of the parish, who are members of the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Divine Mercy, made an act of perpetual consecration to God, Father of Mercy before Bishop Serratelli. The purpose of the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Divine Mercy is to share the message of Divine Mercy, to develop a special love for the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and to strive for sanctification in daily life.

At the close of Mass, Father Kaminski remembered Eva Serratelli, the Bishop’s mother, who passed away on April 27, 2014, which was the date Divine Mercy Sunday was marked that year.

Father Kaminski said, “When we would celebrate the feast of Divine Mercy the past years in our parish of St. Stephen’s, one thing for sure is that our Bishop would be with his beloved mother. Mrs. Eva Serratelli always had a seat in the first pew and there was always a person to take care of her. She is not with us physically anymore but we believe she is with us spiritually and sitting with us in the first pew in our church.”

Bishop Serratelli thanked the community and said, “I want to express my sincere gratitude for this community — for your faith and for your great devotion to the Divine Mercy of Jesus. I pray in the days ahead that the Lord always keep you united and be a force of faith in the community.”