St Augustine writes ‘I speak to you who have just been reborn in baptism, my little children in Christ, you who are the new offspring of the Church, gift of the Father, proof of Mother Church’s fruitfulness. All of you who stand fast in the Lord are a holy seed, a new colony of bees, the very flower of our ministry and fruit of our toil, my joy and my crown. It is the words of the Apostle that I address to you: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh and its desires, so that you may be clothed with the life of him whom you have put on in this sacrament. You have all been clothed with Christ by your baptism in him. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman; there is neither male nor female; you are all one in Christ Jesus.’

The Easter Candle which is used at the Vigil, is made of Bee Wax.. the song of praise that is sung at the beginning of the vigil makes numerous references to Bees..

Bees Wax burns perfectly, so it is an image of the pure and perfect sacrifice that we are called to make. There is only one queen bee and she is an image of Mary.

St Francis de Sales says the bee is an image of virginity and the contemplative life.

‘This is the octave day of your new birth. Today is fulfilled in you the sign of faith that was prefigured in the Old Testament by the circumcision of the flesh on the eighth day after birth. When the Lord rose from the dead, he put off the mortality of the flesh; his risen body was still the same body, but it was no longer subject to death. By his resurrection he consecrated Sunday, or the Lord’s day. Though the third after his passion, this day is the eighth after the Sabbath, and thus also the first day of the week.’

When John Paul 11 proclaimed that the Sunday after Easter was now Divine Mercy Sunday. He was simply bringing back an ancient practice that Augustine is referring too in the above quote. That saw the Sunday after Easter has Mercy Sunday, the ‘octave day (the 8th day ) after Easter. The fruit of the Resurrection is peace and the forgiveness of sins. That is why the Gospel is about Jesus giving His Apostles the power to forgive sin. ‘Love is the stem Mercy is the flower,’

St Augustine ‘Such is the power of this sacrament: it is a sacrament of new life which begins here and now with the forgiveness of all past sins, and will be brought to completion in the resurrection of the dead. You have been buried with Christ by baptism into death in order that, as Christ has risen from the dead, you also may walk in newness of life.’

That is why I think the grace of Divine Mercy Sunday is the grace of a second baptism. The forgiveness of sins and all punishment due to sin. Because this Sunday.. the Sunday after Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday is to bring out the importance the nature, the essence of Baptism. It was on the vigil of Easter that the Church gathered with candles under the Easter Candle to baptize her new sons and daughters.. but Jesus wanted all her children to experience the joy of experiencing nothing less than the grace of a second baptism on Divine Mercy Sunday.

You are a new colony of bees, under the light of Christ.