This was the message Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron conveyed May 1 during Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, which was both Divine Mercy Sunday and the day of Blessed John Paul’s beatification.
“The beatification of John Paul II is for all of us a summons,” the archbishop said before hundreds at the Cathedral, including visitors from various parishes in the metro area. “He lives with Jesus and he continues to serve us. And his service is a call to serve (God) — to be agents of mercy, as he has been.”
The archbishop said it was fitting, given the Gospel reading, that the Sunday following Easter be Divine Mercy Sunday. The reading from John’s Gospel depicted Christ giving the Apostles power to forgive sins.
“There is great insight in calling this day the Sunday of God’s mercy, because on that evening the first gift that Jesus gave to his disciples is that of mercy — the forgiveness of sin,” Archbishop Vigneron said, adding that mercy “is love offered to the wounded world.”
Regarding Blessed John Paul, he said the late pontiff saw the need for mercy throughout his lifetime — witnessing World War II in Poland, and the Cold War later on.
He said Catholics can be witnesses of mercy, forgiveness and God’s healing in their own lives, no matter what their vocations. “Husbands and wives — be merciful to each other,” he said.
Several of those at the Mass said they were touched to be in the church where Pope John Paul II had said Mass in 1987.
“After communion, when I knelt and prayed, I had these goose bumps for two minutes,” said Karen Cholak, a 34-year-old parishioner of National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak.
Robert and Earline Taylor, parishioners of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral Parish, said they were blessed to be able to celebrate both God’s mercy and the beatification of the man whose ministry reflected it.
“That just adds to it,” said Earline, 65. “It just makes it more to be thankful for.”
Brad Snyder, 33, of St. Patrick Parish in Wyandotte, came to the cathedral as a recent convert, baptized last year. The former pope, he said, played a part in his wanting to become Catholic. When Blessed John Paul died, he said he felt compelled to learn more about the Catholic Church, which led him to the RCIA process.
He said Blessed John Paul’s beatification was especially meaningful because Catholics today knew him while he was alive.
“For so long, what he did all those years as pope,” he said, “it resonates with Catholics.”
