April
23, 2017
Second
Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)
Acts
2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31
I remember this
story of a priest who was assigned in a coastal area. One day a parishioner said
to the priest carrying a handful of sand and said, “Father my sins are as
countless as the sands of the sea. How can I ever obtain forgiveness for all of
them?” The priest said, “Take the sand back to the shore and pile up layers of
sand. Then sit back and watch the waves come in and wash the pile of sand slowly,
surely, and completely away. That is how God’s forgiveness works. His mercy is as big as the ocean. Be truly
sorry and the Lord will undoubtedly forgive you.”
Today, the
Second Sunday of Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday. Mercy is one of the messages of
the Risen Jesus to his disciples in the gospel today. How did the apostles
experience the mercy of the Risen Christ? What effect did this mercy bring to
the apostles? Let us reflect on this in
three points.
GOD’S
MERCY CAN PENETRATE THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE. In the gospel,
we see that even if the disciples locked themselves in a room, the Risen Lord
managed to enter the room. What were the first words of Jesus to his disciples?
He said to them: “Peace be with you.” This greeting is very significant. Remember
that during the passion and suffering of Jesus, where did the disciples go?
They ran away and hid themselves. They abandoned Jesus at the moment when He
needed the support of His close friends. But this time instead of Jesus
reprimanding His disciples, instead of revenge, Jesus now appears to them to
offer peace and forgiveness. This is how the mercy of God penetrates our
hearts. Even if the doors of our hearts remain closed, God’s mercy can penetrate
and enter our hearts not to seek revenge, but to offer us peace, mercy and
forgiveness. This is the good news of the Divine Mercy.
GOD’S
MERCY CAN HEAL OUR WOUNDS. One of the prominent characters in the gospel
today is Thomas the apostle. He is known as the “Doubting Thomas” because he
doubted the report of his fellow apostles that they had seen the Risen Jesus.
Where did this doubt of Thomas come from? We also need to understand where
Thomas is coming from. Perhaps he was also hurt. He was also wounded. Perhaps
the reason why he was absent when Jesus first appeared
to the disciples, was that he wanted to have some time alone by himself to grieve
at the death of Jesus. When Jesus appeared again to the disciples, he greeted
Thomas and said: “Peace be with you.” This encounter with the Risen Jesus who
did not seek vengeance but offered peace and reconciliation, healed the wounded
heart of Thomas. This led Thomas to believe and say: “My Lord and my God!”
My brothers and
sisters, we are all like Thomas. We come
to the Lord as wounded people. Let us not be afraid to show the Lord our
wounds: tell Him what is troubling and disturbing us, our hurts, pains, and failures.
Like the wounded Thomas, may our encounter with God’s mercy bring healing to
our own wounds. What happened to the disciples after experiencing God’s mercy?
EXPERIENCING
GOD’S MERCY TRANSFORMS US TO BE “MERCIFUL LIKE THE FATHER.” As
the disciples continued to preach about Jesus, people
will persecute them and put them to prison. But learning from Jesus,
their only response to these challenges, their only response to the wounds
inflicted on them is mercy – not revenge, not violence, not anger, not hatred
but mercy. Pope Francis tells us that
the mercy of God transforms us. It is true. It did transform and strengthened
the disciples of Jesus to be merciful like the Father.
My brothers and
sisters, as we celebrate today Divine Mercy Sunday let us look at the image of
the Divine Mercy. It is the image of the Risen Jesus with nail marks on his
hands and feet. In the silence of our hearts, let us say to Him: “Jesus I trust
in you. Jesus I trust in your mercy. I trust that you can heal my wounds. Make
me an instrument of Your mercy to others.”
Amen.
