Cardinal Macharski’s Pastoral Letter
Introduction
The best answer to the question on how to prepare for and celebrate Mercy Sunday was given by Francis Cardinal Macharski, the Archbishop of Cracow, Poland. In his Lenten letter on “Trust in the Merciful Lord Jesus” (January 30, 1985), he said that the whole of Lent is to prepare to give solemn worship to God who is Mercy itself on the Sunday after Easter.
He went on to say that on (Mercy Sunday) the eighth day after the resurrection of Christ, the whole Church gives thanks to God for His mercy, especially for us sinners. Having prepared ourselves by the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we receive the source of life in Holy Communion. Priests are to preach God’s mercy. All of us, like St.Thomas, are to put our trust in Jesus and be merciful.
In the world we are plagued by threats of annihilation, starvation, violence, abortions, divorces, and events and anxieties that seem to have no answer. Cardinal Macharski quotes the Holy Father’s encyclical on Divine Mercy to point to the ANSWER: God’s mercy, which is love more powerful than evil, sin, and death. Christ crucified and risen is the power and wisdom of God for those who put their trust in the merciful Christ: “Jesus, I trust in You.”
The liturgy of this Sunday extolls God’s mercy shown by the death and resurrection of Christ. This is the focus of the renewal of Vatican II and of the writings of Sister Faustina.
On Mercy Sunday we discover anew the revelation of love and mercy in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.
The whole of Lent we prepare to worship God who is mercy, first by TRUST in Jesus. With St. Thomas we cry, “My Lord and My God.” Without trust there is no worship of, no devotion to The Divine Mercy. Next we prepare by the Sacrament of Reconciliation, not putting off confession to Holy Week. Finally, we prepare by our attitude of mercy, by our deeds, words, and prayer, and by taking part in missions and retreats. We participate in the liturgies of Lent and especially Holy Week.
The pastoral letter of Cardinal Macharski, the protector of the Divine Mercy message and devotion, whose motto is “Jesus, I Trust in You!” gives a marvelous focus on the whole of Lent as a preparation for the worship and celebration of The Divine Mercy as revealed in Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.
The Lenten Pastoral Letter of the Metropolitan of Crakow
on Trust in the Merciful Lord Jesus
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. At the beginning of Great Lent, I come as your Bishop to all — the laity, men religious, women religious, and priests — with a great matter. This I enjoin, that in the Archdiocese of Crakow on the Second Sunday of Easter solemn worship be rendered to The Divine Mercy while observing all the obligatory liturgical regulations and texts of that Sunday.
Let that eighth day after the Resurrection of Christ the Lord, when the whole Church thanks God for this, that He is merciful, be the refuge and shelter for all, especially for us, sinners. Let all, therefore, having availed themselves of the Sacrament of Penance, go to receive Holy Communion, in which is the source of life. Let them have the boldness to implore the merciful Jesus for all kinds of graces for us and for the whole world. Let priests preach about the Crucified and Risen Jesus, to the end that all understand more deeply the mystery of God’s mercy. Let everyone of us again make the decision, like St. Thomas, to put our trust in Jesus and to be merciful. Such is my earnest request and desire.
2. My Brothers and Sisters, this is an uncommon undertaking and an uncommon response for uncommon times. In spite of the fact that there is so much good in people and in the world, there is in us the awareness of a threat, and among people anxiety and fear are on the rise. Is it necessary to specify more precisely from where this derives? The threat of self-annihilation by means of an atomic war, death from starvation of millions of children and grownups, apprehension with regard to freedom, truth, the right to one's conscience. What about respect for the lives of people, the unborn as well? What about respect for the common good? And what about the menace through divorces, spite, the plague of alcoholism and narcotics, enmity and hatred as an alleged right of life. These questions, then, spring up: Won't evil be stronger? Will it be possible to defend good with goodness? Is there any way out at all other than resigning oneself to the absurd and to inaction?
3. In answer to these painful questions, my brothers and sisters, I announce to you the Crucified and Risen Christ! He is the Heavenly Father's answer to our anxieties and fears, to our sins and to “the sin of the world.” Jesus, the Crucified and Risen One, does not cease to say that love is present in the world, and that this love is more powerful than whatever evil in which the human being, humankind and the world are enmeshed. Those words of Christ Crucified had already been for some people in history a stumbling block and folly (see 1 Cor 1:23). It will become, however, the power of God and the wisdom of God for all who believe, who will trust in Christ, as, in the end, trusted the reclaimed apostle St. Thomas. For this do I invite you on the Sunday after Easter, that you place your trust in the merciful Christ: “Jesus, I trust in You.”
4. The Liturgy of this Sunday from long ago extolled God's mercy, demonstrated in the Redemption by means of the Passion and death of Christ. It was to this association that our attention was turned by the post-conciliar renewal of the liturgy, which, as it were, confirmed that which can be read in the writings of Sister Faustina.
The Encyclical of John Paul II on the Divine Mercy contains a magnificent papal teaching on the theme of the Paschal dimension of God’s mercy. Already in his first encyclical the Holy Father said: “This revelation of love and mercy has in man’s history one form and one name. Its name is: Jesus Christ” (RH, 9). Herein is shown the face of Christ: Born in Bethlehem, the Man of Suffering — the Ecce homo, the Crucified One. And the Risen One, who even in His Glorification retains his life-giving wounds of hands, feet ’ and Heart!
The paschal mystery is Christ at the summit of the revelation of the unfathomable mystery of God. And the Paschal Christ, that is, Crucified and Risen, is the definitive incarnation of mercy, its living sign.
On the Sunday after Easter we will discover as through the recapitulation and condensation of the Redemption, which is an act of the merciful love of God: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son...” (Jn 3:16).
5. The rendering of worship to The Divine Mercy on the Sunday after Easter calls for a thorough preparation. We have the whole of the Great Lent for it.
Let us begin already now to express to Christ our trustful faith: “My Lord and My God” — this faith Christ the Lord demanded from his disciples; for its lack he upbraided St. Thomas. Without trust there is no worship of, no devotion to The Divine Mercy!
Most insistently during this Great Lent do I exhort all to take advantage of the Sacrament of Penance. Let us keep receiving from the Risen Lord Jesus the gift of the remission of sins through confession. Let us keep discovering anew the Father rich in mercy, awaiting the conversion of his prodigal children, to whose hearts Christ Crucified knocks. I earnestly ask priests for steadfast ministration in the confessionals, as well as the faithful for this, that they do not put off confession to Holy Week.
Our own merciful attitude is likewise a preparation. Without deeds of mercy our devotion would not be real. For Christ does not only reveal the mercy of God, but at the same time he places before people the demand that they conduct themselves in life with love and mercy. The Holy Father states that this requirement constitutes the very heart of the Gospel ethos (DM 3) — it is the commandment of love and the promise: “How blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7). Let it be a mercy that is forgiving and true, and universal. Therefore daily good words, deeds and prayer for others!
I heartily encourage participation in retreats or missions, in devotions of the Way of the Cross, of “The Bitter Lamentations” (I asked this especially of youth during the past year), to participation in Holy Week and to a conscious renewal of baptismal promises on Holy Saturday. I encourage priests that in their sermons and retreats, while keeping to the program for preachers, they draw abundantly from the encyclical of John Paul II on The Divine Mercy, just as I am doing now.
To conclude, together with the Holy Father I am praying through the intercession of the Mother of Mercy that the Love, which is in the Father, manifest itself, through the Son and the Holy Spirit, as present in our contemporary world, and as more powerful than evil: more powerful than sin and death. Let our trust, love, and our celebration on the Sunday after Easter hasten that hour!
I heartily bless All.
+ Franciszek Cardinal Macharski
Cracow, January 30, 1985
Ordinance:
The Pastoral Letter is to be read at all Holy Masses in all churches and chapels on the First Sunday of Great Lent in the current year.
The Pastoral Department will send to priests helpful material on the theme of the devotion to The Divine Mercy as well as for the Second Sunday of Easter.