Preached on Sunday, April 23, 2017.

What’s your favorite kind of movie?        Do you like comedies?   I certainly do.

I love romantic comedies and one of my favorites is the one called “Arthur”.

It’s a very funny movie ... the kind you can see over & over and laugh every time!

It came out in 1981 starring Dudley Moore, who plays the character Arthur …

the spoiled son of a Multi-millionaire who spends his days trying to be happy.

Well, there’s a scene in that movie where Arthur is at a bar and ...

after he’s been drinking for quite awhile,   he calls out to the bartender, “Bartender, I’d like to have another.”

And the bartender leans over and says, “No, I think you’ve had enough.”

And Arthur says, “Yeah ... but I want more than enough!”

I think that’s a very funny line ... a very comical comeback!

And it could apply to more than just the amount we drink.

It could also apply to how much food we eat ...

to how much sleep we get,

to how many fish we catch, and

to how many Alabama T-shirts we collect.

If someone were to tell you  ... “Hey, I think you’ve had enough.”

You might come back with the reply ... “Yeah ... but I want more than enough!”

I heard that comeback for the first time when I saw this movie in the 80’s ...

but I’m quite sure that Arthur wasn’t the first one to use that line.

No, I believe that someone else came up with that line long before Arthur ...

and I believe that that someone ... was God!

For example, when the Prodigal Son decided to come back to His Father after squandering his inheritance,

he asked to be taken back as a hired hand ... that would have been enough. But the Father took him back as royalty.   The Father gave him “more than enough.”

And when Jesus fed the 5000,  if  everyone received a fish that would have been enough.      But the Apostles picked up 12 Wicker Baskets of extra food.              So, Jesus gave them “more than enough.”

And just 10 days ago, during the Holy Week liturgies,

we recounted how Jesus’ perfect love for us and perfect obedience to the Father .. reconciled us with the Father and opened the gates of heaven to us!

What greater gift could we possibly receive than the Gift of Redemption?

But that wasn’t enough.   Because Jesus wants us to have “more than enough!”

Jesus’ love for humanity was so great that he just had to create a way ...

so that He could remain with us on our journey to Heaven.

He knew that He was ascending to the Father, but He longed to be with us in an intimate way. And so at the Last Supper, on that first Holy Thursday ...

Jesus instituted the Eucharist and established the Priesthood ...

as the way He could be present with us and nourish us

in a real and substantial way as we journey to the Father!

In our 1^st Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear that The Eucharist was taking place from the very beginning of the Church ...

“They devoted themselves to ... the breaking of bread and to the prayers.”

This of course refers to the Mass, which has since been celebrated for some 2000 years as the way that Jesus becomes truly present to us under the appearance of bread and wine and we get to be in union with Him ... His Power and His Love.

So deep was Jesus’ love for us, that just redeeming us wasn’t enough.

He wanted to give us “more than enough.”

So, He gave us Himself in the Holy Eucharist.

And here we are in the octave of Easter ...

rejoicing in the great gifts of redemption and the Eucharist …

and yet Jesus ... still offers us even more!

And the “more” that Jesus offers us … is the gift of His Divine Mercy!

You see, the gates of Heaven could be open ...

 but without His Mercy, who could enter?

It was God’s Mercy that moved Him to send His Son into the world in the first place.

We heard this in the opening of Peter’s First Letter proclaimed today:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who in His great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Our God is a God of Mercy ... it’s His greatest attribute!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus established the way that we tap into His Mercy ... 

it’s through His Priests acting in the Sacrament of Confession.

On Easter Sunday evening, Jesus stood before his Apostles ...

He breathed on them saying ... receive the Holy Spirit

 and then He said: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.”

It’s in this Sacrament that we bring all of our sins and offenses and humbly admit them to the Lord.

It’s here that Jesus wipes our souls clean and renew us in His love.

Since all of us are sinners, all of us are in need of God’s forgiveness.

To receive His forgiveness, we have to ask for His forgiveness.

And in order for us to ask ... we have to trust in His mercy.

Some 80 years ago, in the mid - 1930’s, in Poland, a holy nun named Sister Faustina was blessed to receive private revelations from Jesus.     Jesus asked her to have an image made to represent his Divine Mercy. : (see Devotional Booklet)

Jesus also made the request for a Special Feast Day and a promise of great blessings for those who honor it. (see Devotional Booklet)

After a thorough investigation of Sister Faustina and these revelations,

the Catholic Church declared in the Jubilee Year of 2000 ...

that throughout the world, the Second Sunday of Easter would henceforth be celebrated as ... Divine Mercy Sunday!

Jesus wants us to know that His mercy is ever available.

We just need to ask for it.

And just how many times can we approach God for His Mercy?

In the beautiful Responsorial Psalm 118 that we prayed, we heard the Psalmist say,

“Let the house of Israel say, ‘His mercy endures forever’.”

“Let the house of Aaron say, ‘His mercy endures forever’.”

“Let those who fear the Lord say, ‘His mercy endures forever’.”

God’s Mercy does indeed endure forever.

In fact, St. Faustina, who lived in the 20^th century,

described this as an age of God’s unprecedented mercy.

Do you have any idea why?

Well, recall the great truth that St. Paul announced in his Letter to the Romans, when he declared that “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”

This means that no matter how much sin exists in the world ...

God’s love and mercy will always exceed it!

So, years ago, when sin was at this level in the world, God’s grace was above it at this level. But sadly, sin has continued to increase in the world, and so God’s mercy has also increased in the world ...

so that while we’re now living in a time of unprecedented sin ...

we’re also living in a time of unprecedented mercy!

God will not be outdone.

We are right now living in a time of Mercy such as the world has never seen before. And so it behooves us to act and take advantage of God’s unbelievable goodness.

Jesus has given us the way to have our sins forgiven.

And you would think that that would be enough.

But no, Jesus wants us to have more than enough.

And so through his Church, He offers us a Plenary Indulgence ...

 on Divine Mercy Sunday!

Yes, Our Lord revealed to Sr. Faustina, that to all who commemorate his Divine Mercy. He said,

“On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open.

Whoever will go to Confession and Holy Communion on that day

will receive complete forgiveness of sin and punishment.”

Can we even begin to comprehend how incredible this offer is?

Yes, we know that we receive God’s forgiveness of our sins each time we celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation.

 But Jesus goes beyond that here by offering the complete remission of all temporal punishment. This means that all the time that we would need to spend in Purgatory because of our sins is wiped away!

Consider what Purgatory is ... in the words of Jesus to St. Faustina:

“Today bring to me the souls who are detained in Purgatory and immerse them in the abyss of My Mercy. Let the torrents of My Blood cool down their scorching flames. All these souls are greatly loved by Me. They are making retribution to My justice. Draw all the indulgences from the treasury of My Church and offer them on their behalf. Oh, if you only knew the torments they suffer, you would continually offer for them the alms of the spirit and pay off their debt to My justice.

Purgatory is real.

And to be freed from the time of purification there is a huge blessing.

On this day ... Divine Mercy Sunday ... we have access, though the Church, to a Plenary Indulgence, which removes our time in Purgatory!

Let’s not miss the chance to draw deeply from Our Lord’s fountain of Mercy.

If you’ve been to confession within the past 2 weeks and have not committed any mortal sins ...  and you receive Holy Communion today

and venerate the image of Jesus, the Divine Mercy ... having complete detachment from sin and placing your complete trust in Jesus

and pray for the intentions of the Pope ...

you will receive the Plenary Indulgence.

What a Great God we have:

• Through His suffering and Passion, Jesus gave us our Redemption.

But that wasn’t enough. Jesus wants us to have more than enough.

• In His great love, Jesus gives us Himself in the Holy Eucharist

But that wasn’t enough. Jesus wants us to have more than enough.

• In His great compassion, Jesus gives us access to His Divine Mercy.

Receiving just any one of these gifts would move a person to say,

“Oh Lord, thank you, that’s enough.”

But you can almost hear Our Lavish and Loving Lord saying in reply,

“Yeah, but I want you to have more than enough!”

*******     (OR)     *******

If you don’t make it to Heaven ...

it won’t be because ... you didn’t have enough ...

grace or mercy or strength or help.

Because you see, God not only gave you enough ...

He gave you ... more than enough!