As we continue to celebrate the joy of Easter we have another noteworthy event happening this week. The noteworthy event I’m referring to is the total solar eclipse that’s set to happen this Monday, April 8th. It’s such a big event that many schools are closed Monday & the Guardians even pushed back the starting time of their home opener because of it. You wouldn’t want an outfielder looking up into the sky during the middle of the eclipse to attempt to catch a fly ball after all, the results would be disastrous! If you want to view the eclipse safely, you need to have special glasses. Experts warn that looking at the eclipse without protective glasses (not just regular sunglasses) could cause serious damage to the retinas of your eyes. I got my protective eyewear a week or so before Easter & I am all ready to check everything out on Monday.

  But, before we get to Monday, we celebrate this weekend, Divine Mercy Sunday & I think that there is a spiritual connection between what we experience this weekend & what we’re preparing to experience on Monday. On Monday, the moon will be directly in front of the sun & only the sun’s corona, the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere that is usually hidden by the bright light of the sun’s surface (yes, I had to look that up), will be visible. On this Divine Mercy Sunday, what we celebrate is, in a sense, the eclipse of God’s mercy on our sins. Our shame, our guile over our sins can at times block us from seeing God’s love & mercy at work in our lives. Our unbelief, our doubts, our worries, our fears, our struggles, can eclipse, in a sense, our noticing & paying attention to the action & the presence of our God who is always there.

  As Pope Francis has said, “The joy of God is the joy of forgiveness. It is the joy of the shepherd who finds his lost sheep; the joy of the women who finds her lost coin; the joy of the father who welcomes home his lost son.” “This is all the Gospel, here; this is Christianity! But this is not sentimentalism or bland ‘dogoodism; on the contrary, mercy is the true force that can save man and the world from the ‘cancer’ of sin, from moral and spiritual malaise. Only love can fill the gaps, the negative abysses that evil opens up in our hearts and in history. Only love can do this, and this is the joy of God.” (September 16, 2013). May we know the joy of God’s forgiveness for our sins. May we know the truth that, no matter how deep our sins, our faults, our failings, that God’s love & mercy are always there, ready to eclipse them. And that reality is something that we don’t need any type of protective eyewear to see! And by the way, in case you’re curious, it’s said that the next time we’ll see a solar eclipse is on Monday in 2044.