Homily:
2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) – Cycle C
On
April 30th of the year 2000, two important things happened that have
directly affected our celebration today.
First, Pope John Paul II canonized Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a Polish
nun who was blessed to have received revelations from Jesus asking her to
spread devotion to Divine Mercy. Second,
Pope John Paul II declared that the second Sunday of Easter would be known from
now on as “Divine Mercy Sunday”. The
first was important as an authentication of the revelations made to Sr.
Faustina, thus making it possible to promote devotion to Divine Mercy
throughout the whole world. The second
was important as it fulfilled one of the requests that Jesus made to Sr.
Faustina: that is, that the entire Church reserve the second Sunday of Easter
to honor and commemorate God’s infinite mercy.
And so, today, it is appropriate that we spend some time in this Mass
reflecting on God’s mercy.
In
the Scriptures, we see God’s mercy on display.
In the Gospel, we rewind back to Easter Sunday, where the disciples of
Jesus had gathered together and did not yet know of Jesus’ resurrection. The risen Jesus then appears before them,
even though the doors to the place were locked—which was a display of great and
fearful power—and what does he say to them?
Does he say, “How could you? You
all abandoned me in my hour of need!
Then, you huddle away in fear as if I never told you that this is how it
had to be! It’s like you weren’t even
listening!” No, he doesn’t say that,
does he? What does he say? He says, “Peace be with you” and he makes
himself available to them: showing them his hands and his feet so that they
will know it’s him in the flesh and not a ghost. He didn’t chastise them; rather, he had mercy
on them, even though they had abandoned him.
Not
only that, but Jesus’ next move is to give them a commission to go and share
this joyful message with others. Notice
that this commission, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you”, has no limits
on it. Thus Jesus is extending his mercy
even to those who put him to death as he sends his disciples to proclaim that
he is risen and that redemption can be enjoyed by all who put their faith in
him.
To
be sure that there is no doubt about whether or not a person has received God’s
mercy, Jesus does something even more incredible: he gives his disciples the
authority to forgive sins. Therefore,
whenever they encounter anyone, they don’t have to rely on a vague “I’m sure
that God forgives you”, but rather they can boldly proclaim “I know that God
forgives you, because I have been given the authority to proclaim his
forgiveness, and I proclaim it”. This,
of course, is the institution of the Sacrament of Reconciliation: the sacrament
of God’s mercy extended to sinners.
Yet,
there comes a moment of drama in today’s reading, doesn’t there? Thomas, one of Jesus’ twelve closest
disciples, wasn’t with them when Jesus appeared to them on that first Easter
evening. When he returns to them and
they tell him that they had seen Jesus alive, Thomas denies it. He is so hurt by the seeming defeat of
Jesus—the one who he thought would be his new king—that he will not accept the
testimony of others, but instead insists on a face-to-face reconciliation with
him.
For
a whole week Thomas broods over the fact that Jesus allegedly appeared to the
other disciples without him being present until the following Sunday when,
present this time with the other disciples, Thomas, too, sees the risen
Lord. Again, mercifully, Jesus does not condemn Thomas, but rather he invites
him close. In a way, Jesus is saying to
him, “Do not let your hurt get in the way of placing your faith in me. Come, touch the nail marks and my open side
and know that it is me, alive even after death!” Thomas, having come face to face with the man
who was dead, but now lives, confesses the truth that his heart probably knew
all along: “My Lord and my God!”
This,
my brothers and sisters, is the unbounded nature of God’s mercy: not just that
he would forgive us our sins, but rather that he would come close to us, never
allowing us to stay far from him, but rather pursuing us because he desires so
much that we would be reconciled to him.
And do you think that it was an accident that Jesus appeared to the
disciples when Thomas wasn’t with them on Easter Sunday? Of course not! In doing so, Jesus wanted to prove to us
that, even in our doubt, he would not abandon us. Thus, he allows Thomas to miss his first
appearance so that he might show us all that doubt—even if it is significant!—is
not enough to scare him away or offend him.
Rather, he comes to us again… and again… and again, if necessary until
we allow his tender gaze to fall upon us and so confess our faith in him.
Each
of us, I’m sure, has experienced the anxieties, frustrations, and doubts that
Thomas experienced when he watched his Lord suffer and die. I suspect that it is safe to say that each of
us, like Thomas, has resisted believing that God really has overcome what
seemed to be our defeat. What this
Gospel reading today does for us—and what our commemoration of Divine Mercy today
does for us—is remind us that God never abandons us in our anxieties,
frustrations, and doubts, but that he comes back to us, ever ready to meet us,
hands exposed and saying “Peace be with you.”
It is peace that he offers us, the peace of believing that God’s
goodness can never be exhausted and that no darkness in the world can ever
extinguish his light: the very light that broke through the darkness of death
so that we might experience eternal life.
Each
Sunday, my brothers and sisters, when we approach Holy Communion, we come
face-to-face once again with God’s mercy.
Today, on the day in which we particularly celebrate the Divine Mercy,
let’s open our hearts to allow Jesus’ words to be spoken into our lives once
again: “Peace be with you.” And then, as
our “Amen” proclaims the words of St. Thomas—“My Lord and my God!”—let us also
speak the words that Jesus taught St. Maria Faustina to say when she was
face-to-face with his mercy: “Jesus, I trust in you.” With these words in our hearts, we will then
be ready to go forth from here to be the face of God’s mercy to others so that
they, too, might proclaim the most important truth of them all: that Jesus, the
Son of God, the crucified one, is alive… that he is truly risen!
Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – April 3rd,
2016
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