Where these waters flow they refresh

Deacon Kevin Gingras

April 15, 2023

2nd Sunday in Easter,

Divine Mercy Sunday

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041623.cfm

I know we didn’t read John 19:34 today but I feel it’s appropriate to lead in with that:

One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness…

That is where the image of Divine Mercy comes from.  So yeah, you are probably all thinking “Thanks Captain Obvious”.  I’ll admit that’s a softball but let’s go even deeper.  That endless river of Mercy that began so long ago was passed on to the apostles in today’s Gospel with a simple breath from the Son of God:

  He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

That Gospel passage is what gives us the ultimate show of Divine Mercy, the Sacrament of confession.  That same power of Divine Mercy has been passed down through Apostolic succession to our Bishops and then to our ordained priests, right up to here and now; to Fr. Matt, Fr. David, and all priests.  Confession for us is a breath of fresh air from Jesus imparted to his Apostles so long ago.

What an interesting way to impart the Sacrament of Confession: “He breathed on them”.  Breath plays such an important role for us, without it we die.  God knows this and thus God speaks to us in Sacred Scripture in a language that we will understand.  Breath has always played an important role from the very beginning of Genesis:

then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Again we read of another amazing thing in Ezekiel where an army of bones came to life through breath:

Then he said to me: Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man! Say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O breath, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath entered them; they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army.

The breath of God is an amazing thing, it creates life, can save a life, and through the breathing on the apostles restores us back to life in the spirit through the Sacrament of Confession.  Takes your breath away doesn’t it?

So Confession - is one sure way to take advantage of Divine Mercy.  Another way is through prayer, prayer for ourselves and for others, this will help us to jump into the river of Divine Mercy that flowed from Jesus’ side so many years ago.  I hope, like me, a lot of you are praying the Divine Mercy Novena that ends today.  For me, it has been enlightening in an unexpected way.  During the Novena I have been praying for the deceased souls of family and friends. One night last week the multiple sets of rosary beads hanging on the lamp near my desk caught my eye.  I randomly grabbed one.  It was my dad’s old rosary beads that were given to me when he passed.  Now I never thought my dad was a prayerful man, he went to church, and that was the extent of it I thought.  The other night, as I was praying the Divine Mercy on his old beads I noticed something.  They had wear marks on each bead, wear marks that showed that he had prayed with them A LOT!  I never prayed with these beads in the years that I had them but the Holy Spirit lead me to use them that night; what a gift of  Divine Mercy!  You can bet I prayed in a special way for his soul that night and have been using them ever since!

This Divine Mercy is a wonderful river of repentance and prayer that harkens back to the Prophet Ezekiel:47 - the chapter called the Wonderful Stream - here is just a part of it:

Then (the Lord) brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and there! I saw water flowing out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east. The water flowed out toward the right side of the temple to the south of the altar.

The flow begins as a trickle, then, a thousand cubits later it is ankle-deep, another thousand and it becomes waist-deep, finally, a thousand cubits again and it is too deep to wade!

The LORD God then says to Ezekiel:

Wherever it flows, the river teems with every kind of living creature; fish will abound [my kind of river!]. Where these waters flow they refresh; everything lives where the river goes.

That is the same river of Divine Mercy, made of the blood and water that flows from Christ’s side after his death upon the cross.  During Lent, we noticed some longer lines at the confessional.  The river of Divine Mercy is what those waiting in the confession line are about to jump into.  If you haven’t been a while don’t be afraid to jump in, trust me, the water’s fine!

In Faustina’s diary, entry 1507 we read: 

All grace flows from mercy ... even if a person's sins were as dark as night, God's mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone is necessary: that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God's merciful grace, and then God will do the rest.