Posted on April 10, 2026 View all Pastor's Letter
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We continue to live in the joy of Easter, because the Resurrection of the Lord is not celebrated for just one day, but throughout the entire Easter season. The Church, like a wise mother, invites us on this Second Sunday of Easter to contemplate a very concrete aspect of the mystery of the Resurrection: the Mercy of God. For this reason, this Sunday is also called Divine Mercy Sunday.
From a historical perspective, this feast was promoted by Saint Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun to whom Jesus appeared several times in the 1930s, asking that devotion to His Divine Mercy be spread throughout the Church. In her spiritual diary, Saint Faustina recounts that Jesus desired the Second Sunday of Easter to be dedicated in a special way to remembering that the fruit of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection is precisely mercy for sinners. Years later, Saint John Paul II, who had a deep devotion to Divine Mercy, officially established this feast for the entire Church in the year 2000, on the day of Saint Faustina’s canonization.
However, this feast is not something artificially added to the Easter season; in reality, it is deeply connected to the Gospel proclaimed on this day. The Gospel always presents the appearance of the risen Jesus to the apostles in the Upper Room, when He shows them His wounds and says:
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you… Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them” (Jn 20:21–23).
This Gospel shows us that the first gift of the risen Christ to the Church was not a speech, an organization, or a structure, but the forgiveness of sins, in other words, mercy. The Resurrection has a purpose: that sin may be forgiven, that humanity may return to God, and that the wounds of the human heart may be healed. For this reason, Divine Mercy is not simply one devotion among many; it is at the very heart of the Gospel.
In this same Gospel we also see Saint Thomas, who doubts, who struggles to believe, who needs to see in order to believe. Jesus does not reject him for his doubt; instead, He goes out to meet him, shows him His wounds, and leads him to faith. This too is mercy: God never tires of seeking us, never tires of forgiving us, and never tires of giving us another opportunity. As Pope Francis has said, God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who grow tired of asking for forgiveness.
Spiritually, this Sunday reminds us of something very important: a Christian is someone who lives from the mercy of God. We live because God forgives us, because God is patient with us, because God always gives us the opportunity to begin again.
I would also like to remind you that although Lent has ended, our Bishop’s Lenten Appeal (BLA) has not yet reached its goal. I am very grateful to all who have already made their pledge and donation. I especially invite those who made a commitment but have not yet fulfilled it to please do so in the coming weeks. I also invite those who have not yet participated to consider making a donation, even a small one. What matters most is not the amount, but the generosity of the heart. If we all participate, we will be able to reach our parish goal.
May Jesus, the Divine Mercy, bless your families, your work, your worries, and your joys, and may we never forget to trust in His infinite mercy.
In the Risen Christ,
Fr. Diaz
