Fr. Michael Williams

It appears many people are fearful of God. This may stem from a misunderstanding of who God is. Some people view God as a High Court Judge ready to mete out a stiff sentence for misdemeanours committed. However, the true image of God is rather different, as we can see in Our Lord’s reaction to His disciples following His Crucifixion and Resurrection. He forgives them and gives them peace.

When Jesus had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, all the Apostles ran off; they had feared for their lives and fled. They had failed the Lord. This anxiety about their failures was still present on Easter Sunday. They were riddled with fear. This fear came from the fact that they had abandoned and denied the Lord, and they were scared that what had happened to Jesus would happen to them. The Apostles were paralysed by fear and guilt, and so locked themselves away in a room.

It was in the context of fear and guilt that the Risen Lord appears to the Apostles on Easter Sunday. Our Lord’s first word to His frightened followers was not, ‘Why did you abandon me and run for your lives?’ The first word of the Lord to the Apostles after His crucifixion and Resurrection was, ‘Peace be with you’. In fact He says it twice to them. Jesus stood in the midst of His disciples as their Merciful Saviour, forgiving them their failures: ‘For God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through Him the world might be saved’. Our Lord’s reaction to His failed disciples is one of love and peace. He does not abandon them, even though they abandoned Him. Later, He offers peace to Thomas, even though Thomas doubted Him

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Jesus poured out His mercy and peace to those first followers of His. And He continues to pour out His mercy today, especially through the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). Jesus breathed on those first Apostles (priests) and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven’. For some reason people are fearful of this Sacrament; they lock themselves away from it, keeping their fear and guilt to themselves and not allowing the Lord to wash it away. But that is exactly what happens in Confession, sins are washed away. We need our sins washing away over and over again, because sin is to the soul, what dirt is to the body. You need to get rid of it frequently!

The message of the Risen Lord’s forgiveness and peace still needs to be preached, in all ages and to all generations, because today people are still crippled by fear and guilt. Many people today have locked themselves into a space full of fear and anxiety. They are spiritually paralysed. An encounter with the Risen Lord will hear Him say to them, ‘Go in peace, your sins are forgiven’. This is what happens in Confession and we all need that.

Today we celebrate the feast of Divine Mercy. The feast has its origin in the first half of the twentieth century, when the Lord had to remind His people once again of His great mercy. The Risen Lord appeared to a simple Polish nun, Faustina Kowalska. The full details of these wonderful encounters are told in her spiritual dairy (available from all good bookshops!). One of the things Christ told Sr. Faustina was to have an image painted according to how she saw the Risen Jesus with the inscription underneath, ‘Jesus, I trust in You’.

Our Lord knew that in the dark days of the twentieth century, and this new century, people would need to trust Him. At the time Jesus revealed His great mercy Poland was in a crisis, crushed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Jesus implored Faustina, ‘Tell aching mankind to come close to My merciful Heart, and I will fill them with peace’. Again we see the link between receiving God’s mercy and His peace. We can only know true peace if we are reconciled to God.

When Sr. Faustina told the priest in the convent about her experiences, he was extremely sceptical. He told Faustina that next time the Lord appeared to her she should ask Him, what the priest’s last confession was about. Faustina duly asked Jesus this question and he said to her, tell the priest that when someone has been to confession and has received absolution, then God no longer remembers what they confessed, because when God forgives, He forgets.

The Lord forgave His first disciples their failings and restored them to peace. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation and by deepening our relationship with the Lord through prayer we too are restored to peace of mind, just like those first disciples were.