Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

A Contribution to the Discussion on the Feast of The Divine Mercy 123 Appropriately enough, the principal hymn of the Byzantine Rite for the Sunday that is the Octave o f the Feast o f Easter, and so, the day des­ ignated by our Lord through Blessed Faustina as the Sunday He wants celebrated as the Feast o f The Divine Mercy, declares: While the tomb was still sealed, You shone forth from it as The Life, O Christ our God; while the doors were still barred, You, The Resurrection o f all, stood in the midst o f your disciples, renewing through them a right spirit within us, according to Your Great Mercy! Here the scene from the passage of Sacred Scripture assigned to be read on the eighth day, or Octave, o f Easter, namely, o f the Risen Christ appearing in the midst o f His disciples, is the essential theme o f the principal liturgical hymn for that Sunday, which, under the name of Octave, liturgically constitutes one day with the very Sunday of the Resurrection and the intervening days. All these elements must be kept in mind as we develop the argument. Searching further in liturgical literature for clues o f the Feast o f The Divine Mercy, I came upon a fragment from the so called Apostolic Constitutions quoted in Fr. Danielou’s The Bible and the Liturgy. As quoted by the author, it read: After eight days, may the octave day be for you a great feast (V, 20). Upon looking up a translation of this early work from the original Greek, I found the text to say: After eight days (that is, from Easter Sunday) may there be another feast observed with honor, the very eighth day, on which He (that is, Christ) gave me, Thomas, who had difficulties with faith, the full assurance, showing me the nail marks, and the wound made in His side by a lance (V, 20). Scholars hold that the Apostolic Constitutions contain a mixture of earlier and later elements. But the author of the article on the Liturgy in The Dictionary o f Catholic Theology gives this advice: In any case, one finds ancient elements there, and all liturgists ought to seriously study it (that is, this document) (Column 801). The Apostolic Constitutions is considered to be the most ancient, extant