Canonizations Trump Divine Mercy?

Color me incredibly disappointed.

INCREDIBLY disappointed.

Agitated might be a better word.  Suspicious, even.

Yet again, there was no real celebration / veneration of Divine Mercy this past weekend.  I specifically went to a parish that I thought stood the best chance of acknowledging this Feast, but I was again (third year in a row) discouraged by a complete lack of time dedicated to calling the faithful to take full advantage of this incredible once-a-year event.

The Feast of Divine Mercy occurs the Sunday after Easter.  Why is this such a special event?  Jesus promised that to those who venerate His Divine Mercy will be forgiven all of their sins and will be granted full remittance of the punishment due as a result of those sins.

That's a clean slate, folks.  Clean as in pristine... a baptismally clean soul that is gift wrapped and handed to you simply because Jesus loves you THAT MUCH and wants you as close as possible to Him.  

That is a MIND-BOGGLING GIFT.  Should you die after reception of the Eucharist (having completed veneration and prayers), you would go RIGHT TO HEAVEN.  No stopping in Purgatory, no fear of Hell... not even if you committed the worst, most heinous sins imaginable.  

And yet for three years now, three different parishes that I've attended have basically ignored this!  THREE!

Is this willful ignorance???  I mean, how in the world do you NOT discuss this with your parishioners???  How do you NOT admonish them to take full advantage of this feast???

Given the mess this world is in, wouldn't you want your people to take full advantage of armor such as this?

Ay.

Everyone was so focused on the canonizations.  I'm fully aware of how historic and cool it is to have such gems added to our Church Canon, but c'mon now.  If St. John Paul II were physically standing here in front of the Church, I guarantee you he'd be smacking us lovingly with a stick and reminding us of the feast day he, himself, approved.  

That was part of why they pushed to have his canonization coincide with Divine Mercy Sunday.  His canonization, though, no matter HOW MUCH everyone loves him, should not have overshadowed Divine Mercy.  I don't care if we were canonizing him and fifty billion others around the world.  No amount of canonizations and no amount of holiness on the part of humans (even humans like JPII) can possibly outshine the dignity, grace and blessings of DIVINE MERCY.

I'm seriously so upset over this.  So flippin' upset.

At the end of our Mass, Fr. John did mention it briefly in passing, but he said something along the lines of "For those of you with a Divine Mercy devotion, this is your Sunday.  I wish you a blessed feast."

My mouth actually dropped open.

The 2nd Sunday of Easter is not strictly for devotees.  It's for EVERYONE who wants to avail themselves of Christ's Mercy.  He doesn't restrict it to those of us who happen to like that particular chaplet or happen to have this image up in our homes.  It is for ALL SINNERS.  To wave it off as a small devotion is such a disservice to the meaning behind this feast.

Ugh.  

It's now Wednesday and I'm still incredibly bummed about this.  I can't imagine St. John Paul II being happy that a party for him and his buddy, Saint John the 23rd, completely overshadowed the most joyous feast that Christ, Himself, gifted to the world.  

I just... wow.  So sad about this.  Please tell me there are those of you out there who had Masses that highlighted this feast.

---