Happy Easter, friends.
 
I have long said that priests are evaluated on silly grounds like whether they tell stories in their homilies or if they preach with or without notes. It doesn’t mean that those things aren’t significant, but they shouldn’t be the final litmus test on someone’s ministry. We like that priest because he’s X. We don’t like that priest because he’s Y. It’s just not terribly helpful in the long run if we view our mission as working together towards holiness. I submit to you, on this beautiful feast of God’s Mercy, that there are in fact two qualities we should use to evaluate a priest’s ministry that answer the question of whether he’s living out his vocation. Does he strive for holiness, and is he merciful?

Celebrating one of the final Divine Mercy Sundays of his pontificate before he was unable to travel,   Pope St. John Paul II spoke about the importance of mercy in the heart of the Church as the world shifted rapidly beneath our feet.
 
“God has chosen our own times for this purpose. Perhaps because the twentieth century, despite indisputable achievements in many areas, was  marked in a particular way by the "mystery of iniquity." With this heritage both of good and of evil, we have entered the new millennium. New prospects of development are opening up before mankind,
together with hitherto unheard-of dangers. Frequently man lives as if God did not exist, and even puts himself in God’s place. He claims for himself the Creator’s right to interfere in the mystery of human life. He wishes to determine human life through
genetic manipulation and to establish the limit of death. Rejecting divine law and moral principles,  he openly attacks the family. In a variety of ways   he attempts to silence the voice of God in human hearts; he wishes to make God the "great absence" in the culture and the conscience of peoples. The "mystery of iniquity" continues to mark the reality of the world.”
 
Looking out at an ever-changing world that remains in constant need of God’s guidance, JPII saw both technological advances and increased detachment from God, and there was only one response that appealed to his shepherd’s heart: Mercy. Having lived through the unconscionable atrocities that a godless government had inflicted on him and his brothers and sisters in Poland, JPII knew that ideologies that cut God out are unsustainable and will inevitably lead to collapse either on a broad scale, or at least in the lives of those who embrace them. Therefore, in his mind, the mission of the Church in the world of the 20th (and 21st) century was not to prove ourselves right, but to welcome back those with open arms who have been hurt and broken by the fallenness of the world around us.
 
Divine Mercy Sunday is the perfect day for turning anew to God’s Mercy. Pray for an awareness of where God’s healing is needed in your life and then turn it over to the Lord who wants to take such pain away from us. Consider going to confession and the Divine Mercy celebration at St. Bart’s today. Revel in the joy of God’s forgiveness, and know that  He is always waiting for us.