TEXT: Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27, 2025
April 27, 2025 Father De Celles Homily
Second Sunday of Easter – Divine Mercy Sunday
April 27, 2025
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
Have you ever wondered why Jesus was in the tomb for three days?
Some say it’s because on the third day of creation God created life,
and the resurrection is the new life of Jesus.
Others say it was because the Jews considered
that being “dead” for three days proved that a body was really, truly dead
and not just unconscious.
So, the three days would prove Jesus was really dead.
But then, what did Jesus’ soul and divinity do during those three days?
Of course, in eternity, time has little meaning.
But still, we profess in the Apostles Creed that, in fact,
He did do something during that time.
We say, “He descended into Hell.”
Hell?
This bothers a lot of people: Jesus went to Hell?
Well, the word “Hell” here doesn’t mean what we usually think of as Hell,
the place of eternal punishment with the devil.
It’s a translation of the word “Hades” in Greek or “Sheol” in Hebrew,
and it means “the Abode of the Dead”
—both the righteous dead and unrighteous dead.
So, for example, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus says
Lazarus was in the “Bosom of Abraham” where “he was comforted,”
and the rich man was in “Hell where he was in torment.”
Two different places, but both in the Abode of the Dead, or Hades or Sheol.
And so, in his Letter to the Ephesians,
as he speaks of Jesus later ascending to Heaven, St. Paul says,
“He ascended”—what does it mean but that
He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
And St. Peter writes in his first letter,
“Having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
in which also He went and made proclamation
to the spirits now in prison…”
And then again,
“For this reason the gospel was preached also
to those who are dead,
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh,
but live according to God in the spirit.”
So, it is the constant teaching of the Church
that during those days in the tomb,
Jesus went not simply to the fiery Hell of the demons
but also to that part of the Abode of the Dead
that he called the “Bosom of Abraham”
or what the Church sometimes calls “the Limbo of the Fathers.”
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We know that when God cast Adam and Eve out of Paradise,
the gates of Heaven were closed to man
until Jesus opened those gates by His death on the Cross.
Think of all the righteous holy men and women of the Old Testament,
for example, who were waiting their Redeemer, waiting in Limbo:
Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, Esther, Ruth Isaiah, St. Joseph!
And yes, Adam and Eve.
Imagine the complete and utter joy of all those righteous men and women,
especially Adam and Eve, when the Lord Jesus comes to them
to bring them to Heaven.
An ancient text recalls what this might have looked like:
“The Lord goes in to them holding His victorious weapon, His cross…
When Adam…sees Him, he strikes his breast in terror
and calls out to all, ‘My Lord be with you all.’
And Christ in reply says to Adam, ‘And with your spirit.’
And grasping his hand, He raises him up, saying,
‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give you light.
…I [once] posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves;
now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.”
This might be new to some of you,
and it might seem strange to some of you.
If so, then just think of it as an expression of
the indescribable beauty and profound wonder of the mercy of Jesus.
That He would not only save the people who knew Him in this world,
and who would come to know Him through faith in the future,
but also those who were born and died before they could know Him.
Even they longed for His coming
with true devotion and love.
That He would not only come to us but go back to them,
and pour out His Divine Mercy on all mankind,
past, present, and future, who sought to love God with all their hearts.
The divine mercy poured out on the Cross
and shining forth in the Resurrection
isn’t just for Mary and the Apostles and the first disciples.
It’s for very everyone who seeks and strives to love the Lord Jesus.
And as Jesus Himself says,
“Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing My day;
he saw it and was glad.”
This is the Mercy of Christ shown to those in the Limbo of the Fathers or
the bosom of Abraham.
But as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches,
this descent into the Abode of the Dead
involved not just the Bosom of Abraham.
Thomas points out, as the Church teaches,
that the Abode of the Dead had three parts:
- Hell, or “Gehenna,” the fiery place of eternal death and punishment of the lost souls, and the abode of devil
- The Bosom of Abraham, where the righteous, like Adam and Moses, awaited their Savior,
- and finally to Purgatory, where imperfect but holy souls are purified to enter the perfection of Heaven.
Now, Jesus went to Hell not out of mercy, but out of justice.
As Aquinas says,
“Descending there He put them to shame
for their unbelief and wickedness.”
But He went to the Limbo of the Fathers and to Purgatory
out of His divine mercy.
As Aquinas says,
“To [souls] in Purgatory He gave hope of attaining to glory:
while upon the holy Fathers…He shed the light of glory everlasting.”
This brings us to Purgatory.
The Book of Revelation tells us,
“Nothing impure will ever enter [into Heaven].”
So, many of the ancient Jews, including the Pharisees and Apostles,
believed that when a righteous person died
who was still guilty of some venial sin,
or even a great sinner who repented
but was still affected by or had attachment to their sins,
they would go to this part of the Abode of the Dead,
where they would be purified of all their sins
and sinful attachments.
As Catholics we believe this too,
as well as the idea that Purgatory involves temporary punishment
for the sins we’ve committed, even those forgiven in Confession.
To be clear: Purgatory is not for unrepentant mortal sinners,
but for repentant sinners and sinners guilty of only venial sins.
Some folks are horrified by this: God wouldn’t do that to a good person.
Well, good people can still be imperfect people or have very bad pasts.
And God could just say,
“Tough! You’re not perfect, so you can’t enter the perfection of Heaven.
You loved Me some,
but you didn’t love Me with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength
like I warned you about,
so you can’t share in My love forever in Heaven.”
He could say that.
But He doesn’t, because He loves us.
In His divine mercy, He died on the Cross for our sins,
not for our good deeds and love, but for our sins.
And He shares this mercy with all us sinners,
pouring out His mercy especially in the Eucharist
and the sacrament of Confession.
And He shares His mercy even with the sinners who die,
purifying them through His love, His divine mercy.
In some sense, Purgatory is Divine Mercy par Excellence.
So we say, even a terrible sinner
who repents at the last millisecond before death,
even he can go to Heaven, through Purgatory.
Even a Hitler, or Stalin.
Even your brother who’s been away from the faith.
Even your saintly mother who was kinda cranky before she died.
And even a pope.
This last week, on Easter Monday, Pope Francis died.
Francis once joked saying
three of his five immediate papal predecessors,
John XXIII, John Paul II and Paul VI,
have been declared saints;
a fourth, Pope John Paul I, is being considered for canonization.
He concluded, “And Benedict and I are on the waiting list!”
Some think that he should be canonized and that he’s in Heaven now.
Others are a little more circumspect,
as they remember that Pope Francis was far from perfect.
He did a lot of wonderful things:
He was prayerful, loved the poor, and preached of mercy.
But, speaking frankly, he was not perfect.
I won’t go into it all, but he was sometimes foul-mouthed
and sometimes spoke harshly about folks
who did things he didn’t like or who disagreed with him.
Even his greatest admirers acknowledge
that his rule was often authoritarian
and that his teaching was sometimes confusing.
In short, as he himself said to the cardinals in accepting his election
in conclave twelve years ago,
“I am a sinner, but I trust in the mercy and infinite patience
of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in a spirit of penance, I accept.”
I say all this not to judge the Holy Father or to criticize,
but only to point out that we all are sinners in need of God’s mercy.
The Resurrection is our hope for that mercy.
And so, we pray for the divine mercy for all of us,
especially those who have departed from this world–
the souls in Purgatory.
When we pray for the dead, including Pope Francis,
or objectively and without malice recognize their imperfections,
that does not mean we are passing judgment or condemning them.
The opposite is true: We are doing them a service.
As St. Theresa of Avila, a great mystic and doctor of the Church,
told her followers on her deathbed 1200 years ago:
“Don’t let them call me a saint when I’ve died
—then they won’t pray for me!”
We have to remember they need our prayers.
Not because God doesn’t know about their need for mercy,
but because this is our way of participating in Divine Mercy:
We pray for others as an act of love…of our mercy.
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Sometimes people were unhappy with Pope Francis.
But Jesus tells us to love everyone:
“Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
How do we love someone if we don’t show mercy?
How do we show mercy if we don’t pray for the dead?
So today, on this Octave of Easter, of the Resurrection, of Divine Mercy,
we rejoice and hope and pray
that the Lord Jesus may pour out His Mercy
on all the sinners of this world of the living,
of the world of the dead, and of the souls in Purgatory.
Especially, we pray this for each other and for beloved Jorge Bergoglio, our Holy Father Francis.