DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY
Scripture:
1st Reading: Acts 5:12-16
2nd Reading: Rev 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19
Gospel: John 20:19-31
There was a preacher who didn’t know when to stop preaching. A man came up to him after the service and said, “Your sermon this morning sounded to me like the peace and mercy of God.” Pleased to hear this, the preacher made the mistake of asking the man what he meant exactly. “Well”, the man said, “it was like the peace of God because it was beyond all understanding, and it was like the mercy of God because I thought it would endure forever”.
On this Second Sunday of Easter we celebrate the truth that God’s mercy is everlasting, and our celebration of that mercy is itself a perpetual gift to the Church of our late Holy Father, Blessed Pope John Paul II, who declared this Sunday as Divine Mercy Sunday.
In our Gospel today, we can only imagine the reaction of the disciples of Jesus to Thomas, when he refused to believe their story about the Risen Lord’s appearance to them the evening of that first day of the week. After all, the other disciples were all in the room when Jesus appeared to them. Had any of them not been there, isn’t it likely that they, too, would have found the story a little bit far fetched?
After looking at the disciples this way, it brought back something we did during my Deacon formation days. We had an assignment to write what might have been if we were there in that upper room when Jesus appeared to the disciples. This is what I came up with: I called it
“The Upper Room”
I’m in the upper room. I’m dressed in a burlap garment. Beads of sweat slowly cascade down my face only to meet my sandaled and dusty feet. Every step I take, dust from the floor of bamboo woven reeds fog them.
I’m pacing, wondering what to do next. The room is dark with only gray and black colored images.
The darkened images represent uncertainty, loneliness, despair, fear, abandonment. All of a sudden, “Peace be with you”is called out. The risen Jesus is hear. The darkened images become bright and full of color. I see Jesus’s hands and feet, the nail holes that are the remnant of His suffering for my sins.
I feel ashamed and a tear traverses down my cheek only to be caught by Him. This uncertainty has now become belief. The loneliness has become joy; fear has become hope, and the abandonment has become compassion, forgiveness, mercy, and love.
You see what happens when we do believe, when we have true faith in God and his Mercy? God sent his son as Mercy itself, why? Because of his extreme love for you and me. In this love, which is Jesus, we can find forgiveness, compassion, and yes, Mercy! Just take a hard look at the crucifix.
For some of Jesus’ disciples they saw only gray and darkened images. For those disciples that believed in Jesus totally, saw beautiful images full of color full of wonder and love.
Now, it is easy to put into words, but what about poor Thomas. The Risen Jesus more than makes up for the disciple’s impatience for Thomas. Jesus not only invited Thomas to put his hand into his side and to look at the wounds in his hands, but he gently calls him to faith, a faith that will allow him to go beyond his doubts and fears and receive the Spirit that Jesus breathed upon the other disciples, to see the real beauty of God’s mercy standing in front of him.
Like Thomas, we , too, struggle with doubts and uncertainties. We, too, sometimes have a hard time believing that which we cannot see. So the invitation of Jesus to Thomas also extends to us. The Lord injects his mercy, his love and his compassion into our lives to sustain us in the face of all that concerns and troubles us, and we can only respond with hearts full of love and gratitude.
So, is that all we have to do to receive God’s mercy, have an open heart? Well, it is more than that. It is not enough for us to simply receive the mercy of God. No, Jesus calls us today to become channels of that mercy on a world that so sorely needs it. Can we change the world? Yes we can!! Little by little, by showing God’s mercy to others, as Jesus suggests, when we forgive others as we have been forgiven, but we also do it through countless daily acts of kindness directed to those around us.
Look at how Jesus changed the world. Little by little He surrounded himself with disciples, spreading the Good News to them in a way that propelled them into proclaiming it themselves. How did He do this? Look at the many cases in scripture where Jesus personified the word mercy.
As it says in our first reading from Acts; “Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the Apostles”. And it also said; “great numbers of men and women, were added to them”.Notice that the signs and wonders resulted in greater numbers of believers in the Lord.
Now, I know that we are not expected to do any kind of miracles, or are we? It is rather amazing what a kind word does to others, maybe a compliment or two, even a hug when you know someone is hurting? Even something as simple as a smile can do wonders.
The effort to show God’s mercy to others invites us to embrace the deeper meaning of mercy. Pay attention, there will be a very small quiz afterwards on the word hidden in what I will now say.. God’s mercy requires us to be meek (M) and humble. It challenges us to show God’s love and forgiveness equally (E) without fear or favor.
It demands that we strive to be reconciled (R) with God and one another. God calls us to be centered (C) around the sacrificial table to receive Jesus to give us strength to sow the seeds of mercy by which we constitute our yes (Y) to God’s call to be his disciples in our world today. We cannot do it alone.
O.K. its quiz time. I’ll make it easy on you. All that is required in this quiz is a yes or no. Are you ready? Was the word I spelled out mercy?
Can you see how we need it? Can you now see how we depend on it?
All joking aside, unlike the sermon story at the beginning, this homily will not endure forever. Sorry! But God’s mercy will, and as long as it does, we will be invited to receive and share the gift of that mercy with others. May our response to this gift echo the words of Thomas: “My Lord and my God!”.