Some months ago, looking ahead to the 20th anniversary of the death of Pope St. John Paul II, I decided upon a parish commemoration of the final Holy Mass offered in his presence.

He died on April 2, 2005, the seventh day of the Easter octave that year, at 9:37 p.m. At 8 p.m. that Saturday evening, with the feast of Divine Mercy already begun, the Mass of Divine Mercy Sunday was celebrated in the Holy Father’s room by Archbishop Stanisław Dziwisz, the longtime papal secretary, along with Cardinal Marian Jaworski and Archbishop Stanisław Ryłko, two of John Paul’s longtime Cracovian friends.

My parish originally scheduled a Mass for 8 p.m. this coming Saturday evening, the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday. Then Pope Francis died earlier this week, and his funeral was set for earlier that Saturday in Rome. At our Mass in honor of John Paul’s death, we will now ask the sainted pope to intercede for his deceased successor.

Divine Mercy again takes a central place in the first 25 years of this new millennium.

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, becoming the fourth pope of the last six to have an “octave” death. St. John XXIII died during the octave of Pentecost 1963 (now the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church). John Paul II and Francis died during the Easter octave, and Benedict XVI died during the Christmas octave.

“Let us commend to God’s tender mercy the soul of Pope Francis,” Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, will pray at the funeral Mass on Saturday, the seventh day of the Easter octave.

The mercy of God is invoked at any Catholic funeral, and Divine Mercy has been a mainstay of papal life for 25 years.

Canonization of St. Faustina, 2000

The first Divine Mercy Sunday of the third millennium was not, strictly speaking, Divine Mercy Sunday.

In the Divine Mercy revelations to Sister Faustina Kowalska, she had been asked to petition Rome to make the Sunday of the Easter octave the feast of Divine Mercy. That was liturgically impossible given the priority the Easter octave takes over all other observances. And it was not at all clear how a cloistered sister could do anything about it.

John Paul decided that St. Faustina would be the first saint of the third millennium. He would canonize her on the Sunday of the Easter octave. Similarly, Pope Francis decided that Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint, would be canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday. (That canonization was postponed upon the death of the Holy Father.)

“Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his mercy endures forever (Psalm 118:1),” John Paul began his homily at St. Faustina’s canonization. “It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church will be called ‘Divine Mercy Sunday.’ In the various readings, the liturgy seems to indicate the path of mercy.”

John Paul did not establish a new observance as much as change the character of the existing Sunday Mass in the Easter octave. In fact, the collect for “Divine Mercy” Sunday was not changed, as it already began: “God of everlasting mercy.”

Death and Funeral of John Paul II, 2005

There were skeptics about the new Divine Mercy designation, wondering if perhaps John Paul had imposed a particular Polish devotion on the universal Church during the holiest time on the calendar. Such doubts evaporated when the hand of Providence showed itself in the timing of his death.

He died on a first Saturday, customarily dedicated to Our Lady, to whom John Paul was devoted (his motto was Totus Tuus — “all yours”). It was already the feast of Divine Mercy, begun that evening. That six-hour window was so rare as to make clear that a heavenly stamp of approval had been placed upon Divine Mercy Sunday.

In his memorable funeral homily for John Paul, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger chose only one quotation from the late Holy Father’s voluminous work.

“[John Paul] interpreted for us the paschal mystery as a mystery of divine mercy,” Cardinal Ratzinger preached. “In his last book, he wrote: The limit imposed upon evil ‘is ultimately Divine Mercy’ (Memory and Identity, pp. 60-61).”

Beatification 2011 and Canonization 2014

Six years later, Cardinal Ratzinger would return to St. Peter’s Square as Pope Benedict XVI to beatify his predecessor. Again, there was a confluence of fitting liturgical observances. It was Divine Mercy Sunday, May 1, 2011.

“The date was chosen for today’s celebration because, in God’s providence, my predecessor died on the vigil of this feast,” preached Benedict. “Today is also the first day of May, Mary’s month, and the liturgical memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. All these elements serve to enrich our prayer.”

In 2014, Pope Francis followed the same pattern and fixed the canonization of John Paul for Divine Mercy Sunday — April 27, 2014. (It fell on the same date as this year.)

Pope John XXIII was canonized at the same time, and Pope Francis spoke of “these two men, who looked upon the wounds of Christ and bore witness to his mercy.”

Another “coincidence” of that day? The 2014 canonization date was the 75th birthday of now-Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow. It was as if his life serving John Paul was now complete, with the canonization on Divine Mercy Sunday and the very date canon law required him to submit his resignation.

Jubilee of Mercy, 2015-2016

Carrying forward the message of mercy, the year after the canonization of John Paul, Pope Francis declared an extraordinary holy year, the Jubilee of Mercy. That was a first and coincided with the new millennium being inaugurated under the sign of Divine Mercy.

“This Extraordinary Year is itself a gift of grace,” Pope Francis said when opening the Jubilee of Mercy in 2015. “To pass through the Holy Door means to rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone and goes out personally to encounter each of them. … This will be a year in which we grow ever more convinced of God’s mercy.”

The new millennium began with the opening of the Holy Door at Christmas 1999, but in a certain sense, the inauguration of Divine Mercy Sunday that year was the heart of the Great Jubilee. It has accompanied the Church these first 25 years, especially in the lives of the three popes of the third millennium.

It is thus fitting that Pope Francis be buried on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday, a gift from God to which he, like John Paul, was devoted.