“RISEN WITH CHRIST”
Easter Reflections
Sunday, 23rd April 2017.
Second Week of Easter
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY
Acts 2: 42-47;
Ps 118: 2-4, 13-15;
1 Pet 1: 3-9;
Jn 20: 19-31.
“God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven... With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!” (EvangeliiGaudium, 3)
Today is the eighth and final day of the Octave of Easter. On this day, we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. It is a day when the flood-gates of mercy are opened wide and God lavishes us with more than we could ever hope for. Today we are reminded of the unfathomable Mercy of God. The Gospel today shows Jesus’ mandate as he gives the apostles, the Holy Spirit, which would bring forgiveness of sins. The Risen Lord becomes present again in the midst of the gathered disciples. He warms their hearts, opening them to understand the Scriptures, and “the breaking of the bread”. He opens their eyes and makes himself known.
In the first part of the Gospel, Jesus communicates his Spirit to his disciples. With that he gives them the power to overcome the forces of evil. In the second part, the famous episode of the doubting Thomas is told. Though made proverbial, Thomas seems to have done nothing wrong: he only asked to see what others had seen. The Gospel of Mark says that Jesus appeared to the eleven “and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen him risen” (Mk 16:14). In Luke’s gospel the risen Christ addresses the amazed and frightened apostles and asks: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” (Lk 24:38). In the last page of the Gospel of Matthew it even says that when Jesus appeared to the disciples on a mountain in Galilee, some still doubted (Mt 28:17).All therefore doubted, not only the poor Thomas.
John reports this episode not to put the apostle in a bad light. He wants to respond to the questions and objections that Christians of his communities insistently raised. They find it hard to believe; they are struggling in the midst of many doubts; they would like to see, touch, and verify if the Lord is truly risen. They wonder: Is it still possible for us to have the experience of the Risen Lord? Are there evidences that he is alive? How is it that he no longer appears? These are the questions that we ourselves ask today. John takes Thomas as a symbol of the difficulty that every disciple meets to come to believe. John wants to teach the Christians of his communities (and us) is that the Risen One has a life that escapes our senses; a life that cannot be touched with bare hands or seen with the eyes. It can only be achieved through faith. This also applies to the apostles, who also have made a unique experience of the Risen Lord. One cannot have faith in what is seen. If anyone wants to see, observe, touch, one must renounce his faith. For Jesus, however, blessed are those who have not seen, not because it costs them more to believe and thus have greater merits. They are blessed because their faith is most genuine, and purest, indeed, is the only pure faith. Who sees has the certainty of the evidence, has irrefutable proof of a fact.
What does one, who does not meet the Risen One, do? Like Thomas, he will have need of evidences to believe, but he will never obtain evidences. Contrary to what one sees depicted in the paintings of the artists, it does not appear that Thomas has touched the Risen One. Like Thomas, we have to have faith to only know, but believe and pronounce our profession of faith after hearing the voice of the Risen One, along with the brothers and sisters of our community.
”Divine Mercy Sunday has been celebrated for years as a private devotion. But in the year 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II, who himself was an extraordinary instrument of God’s mercy, put this feast on the Church’s official calendar as he raised Sister Faustina to sainthood. She was a mystic who was privileged to have many private revelations from our Lord which she recorded in her diary of Divine Mercy.
She writes of her experience:“On that day (the 8th day of Easter each year) the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.”
As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, let us intensely reflect upon the abundance of this gift that God wishes to pour forth upon us. There is no limit to how much we are loved by our God of perfect mercy. Turn your eyes toward our merciful Lord and be open to all that He wishes to bestow.
Prayer: Lord of Mercy, help me today to begin to understand what mercy is all about. Help me to first be open to the mercy You wish to bestow upon me. As I receive Your own Divine Mercy, help me also to be an instrument of that mercy for all to see. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.