Homily, 2nd Sunday in Easter, Divine Mercy -- April 16, 2023

Readings: Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

Today on this eighth day in the Octave of Easter, the Church celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday, the floodgates of God’s mercy based both on Scripture and the revelations of Saint Faustina Kowalska.  Between 1931 and 1938, Jesus appeared in Poland to Sister Faustina revealing to her to tell the whole world how much he wanted to show mercy to sinners. At the urging of her superiors, Sister Faustina kept a diary of her conversations with our Lord which was eventually published under the title, Divine Mercy in My Soul.

In one appearance, Jesus asked that the Sunday after Easter be celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday. Jesus told Sr Faustina; “On the day of my feast, the feast of mercy, you will go through the world and bring fainting souls to the spring of my mercy. I shall heal and strengthen them” (Divine Mercy in My Soul #206). And so, on April 30, 2000, Saint John Paul II honored our Lord’s request by declaring that the first Sunday after Easter would be celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday. 

Today’s gospel is especially fitting for this celebration. If anyone was in need of mercy, it was Thomas. He wasn’t present when the Risen Jesus revealed himself to the other apostles. Because he didn’t see Jesus with his own eyes, he refused to believe. The gospels do not tell us where Thomas was or what he was doing on that first Easter Sunday. Probably, he was walking the streets of Jerusalem listening to people talking about Jesus’ crucifixion. Some would have been saying how unjust it was. Others would have laughed at Jesus and his followers for believing in what they called nonsense. Wherever he was and whatever he was doing, the trauma of Jesus’ death was afflicting Thomas’ mind and heart. His spirit was crushed. He didn’t want to believe anymore.

Doesn’t this also describe the situation so many people find themselves in? We live in a time when people’s spirits are crushed. We experience much evil, deception, and cruelty in the world. Everywhere we turn we hear different opinions. We don’t know who to believe and begin to wonder what is true. We doubt, and like Thomas, we stray from the source of all truth — the Risen Christ and his Church. The longer we stay away, the deeper the roots of doubt sink within us. Eventually, we begin to lose hope. That was the situation Thomas found himself in. He just couldn’t bring himself to believe anymore. His heart was too broken. 

But how does Jesus react? Does Jesus abandon Thomas to his fear and doubt? No. In his mercy, He appears to Thomas to relieve him of his burden of doubt, to heal his broken heart and to restore his faith. Jesus gently takes Thomas from obstinate refusal to a moment of faith and coaxes from Thomas one of the great confessions of faith: My Lord and my God! In that moment, Thomas is healed and changed – healed of his grief and pain, changed from doubt to belief. This is Divine Mercy. Put simply --- Jesus helped bring Thomas to faith, rather than push him away. Do we help draw people toward a life of faith or do we make them indifferent to it? 

In today’s Gospel, the specific ministry of forgiveness and mercy is passed to the disciples, when Jesus says; “As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit." This is Divine Mercy. 

Jesus expressed his active mercy by breathing into them the Holy Spirit, the vital principle of his own life. And Jesus mentioned nothing of their failure to stand with him, rather, like the father who restored his wayward son as an heir, Jesus gave them his mission: specifically, a mission of forgiveness. If we think about it, Jesus never focused on sin. He mightily criticized people who degraded or excluded others, but sin was never his focus. For Jesus, acts of mercy restored people, empowering them to live the fullness of their potential. In the long run, that asks much more of people than simply being sorry for sin. Mercy is an action, not just an emotion. It is a concrete and generous response to another’s need. On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us be bold enough to ask for mercy, and act out divine mercy?

Jesus, I trust in you!