Joh 20:19-31
Acts 4:32-35 1
Joh 5:1-6
focus: Divine Mercy is the Easter gift of the Risen Christ.
function: It can and is meant to transform also our hearts and our lives.
“Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy.” Pope St. John Paul II once made reference to these words of Jesus to St. Faustina and then added: “Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity.” Pope John Paul canonized the Polish nun Sr. Faustina Kowalska on April 30, 2000, and designated the 2nd Sunday of Easter to be Divine Mercy Sunday.
Pope Francis, in his Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, said: “Jesus the face of the Father’s mercy.” And he added: “Mercy has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth, reaching its culmination in him… Jesus, by his words, his actions, and his entire person reveals the mercy of God.”
Later in the document, he further explains: “’God is love’ (1 Jn 4:8,16)… This love has now been made visible and tangible in Jesus’ entire life. His person is nothing but love, a love given gratuitously. The relationships he forms with the people who approach him manifest something entirely unique and unrepeatable. The signs he works, especially in favor of sinners, the poor, the marginalized, the sick, and the suffering, are all meant to teach mercy. Everything in him speaks of mercy. Nothing in him is devoid of compassion”.
In showing God’s love, God’s acceptance, God’s compassion to people of all walks of life, Jesus overstepped boundaries defined by the authorities of his Jewish religion at this time, boundaries between clean and unclean, between the so-called righteous and sinners, between men and women,
between Jews and non-Jews, etc. This, in conjunction with his radical message, which went to the root of the law from Mt. Sinai and to its original and deeper intent, was considered provocative. He experienced rejection by the leaders of his people. In addition, the Roman colonial power suspected that he could cause an insurrection. Jesus’ fidelity to his mission of making visible God’s love and mercy for all people ultimately lead to his passion and death.
However, this is not the end of the story. Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples. He deals with them in a merciful way. He does not blame them for fearfully going into hiding during his passion. He does not hold against Peter that he denied him. Instead he bestows upon them his peace, as he had promised, and fills their hearts with joy. His breathing on them is a reference to the 2nd creation story in the book of Genesis. There God breathed life into a lump of clay and so created the first human being. Now the apostles become a new creation. The Bible uses the same word for breath, wind and God’s spirit: ruach (Hebrew), pneuma (Greek) and spiritus (Latin). In this new creation at Easter, the disciples are being filled, at the same time, with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus has forgiven them their infidelity toward him. And he calls upon them to practice forgiveness themselves. – Finally, Jesus is not satisfied until even Thomas who was not part of the group on Easter Sunday, can also experience his presence as the Risen One and believe in him.
Pope Francis once pointed out that this is also an expression of Jesus’ mercy: He goes after Thomas so nobody is left out!
Dear sisters and brothers, Divine Mercy is the Easter gift of the Risen Christ. It can transform and is meant to transform also our hearts and our lives.
St. Faustina had a vision of Jesus and of divine mercy radiating from his sacred heart. In the vision, Jesus asked for a painting to be made of this image. A local artist created the painting according to her directives. It shows Jesus standing, with nail marks on his hands and feet, his right hand raised in blessing and with rays fanning out from his heart, white on one side and red on the other. I like to look at this image. The white rays represent Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit to us. We, too, have already been re-made into a new creation since our baptism. The old things have passed away, the new has begun (2 Cor 5:17), St. Paul would say.
Today’s second reading is another Scriptural reference of this image. St. John says that Jesus came through water and through blood (represented by the red rays). The blood that flowed out of Jesus’ side wound symbolizes and literally expresses his love to the end of which every Eucharist reminds us. At the Mass we are invited to unite our cross-bearing, our daily dying and rising, that is part of Christian discipleship with His.
In today’s gospel, Jesus also send his disciples out, giving them a share in his mission that he has received from his Father. One expression of living it is forgiveness, giving the people who are part of our lives a new chance time and again and not holding “old things” against them any longer: in the family, in monastic community, in the church, also in society and in the world. This is one important way of sharing the gift of Divine mercy that we have so plentifully received.
~Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB