This past Sunday was Divine Mercy Sunday in the Catholic Church, a feast when Catholics reverence the image of Divine Mercy, beg forgiveness for their sins, pray for those souls still struggling to get into Heaven, and thank God for all He has given them.

Ever since I was a young boy, I remember celebrating the Mass of Divine Mercy. The image of Christ would be displayed on the altar with two beams of light streaming out from His heart, one red and the other white.

Then later that day, at precisely 3 o’clock in the afternoon — the “hour of mercy” — you could count on dear Mom and Dad to stop us from whatever we were doing, gather us together in the living room before the image, and pray:

“For the sake of His sorrowful passion, Have mercy on us and on the whole world… Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and all the whole world.”

It’s a simple prayer, and easy one to memorize, but it’s also difficult to grasp the meaning of it.

Really, it’s difficult to understand Divine Mercy itself.

The feast of Divine Mercy always follows on the Sunday after Easter. Because of this, I always believed that Easter and the feast of Divine Mercy were somehow connected (though it seemed pointless to have a feast after we already got our Easter baskets).

I wondered, then, why the Priest’s sermons on Divine Mercy Sunday rarely mentioned the Resurrection. And why Easter occurred with so much fanfare and celebration, but Divine Mercy Sunday quietly passed with nothing more than a few special prayers before an image of Jesus that seemed to be looking right back at you.

Then, it clicked.

Easter is the great celebration. It is the highest feast. But if Easter is the Sun in the heavens then Divine Mercy Sunday is the Moon at night. Easter celebrates the greatest victory of all time, the defeat of Death himself. And Divine Mercy Sunday brings us the spoils of that victory, while also reminding us of the price that was paid.

Look at the image itself. If the Red represents the blood of Christ’s passion, then the white is the brilliance of His glory on Easter. If the Red symbolizes our little sufferings of Lent, then the White shows our joy on Easter morning. Both of these together, the blood and the brilliance, combine to make the image of Mercy. The Sunday after Easter reminds us that Mercy is not only saying “I forgive you” but “You have been set free”.

This is the point of the feast of Divine Mercy. It’s easy for us to suffer through Lent, celebrate on Easter and then move on. But Divine Mercy Sunday reflects back to give us a birds eye view of what really happened. It’s like the moon that still shines after the Sun has set. It is the gentle reminder that God’s mercy persists even through the night.