DIVINE MERCY, THE UNFATHOMABLE GRACE OF GOD
The Divine Mercy is the unfathomable grace of God! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the Risen Christ and offers to humanity. The devotion to Divine Mercy Sunday grew rapidly after its designation by Pope Saint John Paul II.
The Divine Mercy of God is most the evidential proof that God is not a moralist legalist or sadist bend on eternal punishment for sinners. It is the unfathomable mercy and grace at work in us even in our sinful state. “Where sin abounds, grace (or mercy) abounds much more.” Romans 5:20
“The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” Ps. 103:8-10.
OUR THEME
The readings of this Sunday invite us to this profound mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation. We need a trusting Faith in the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus´ suffering, death and Resurrection.
The biblical post resurrection events are very important to overcome the scandal of a dead man rising to life after three days. Indeed, the resurrection is inexplicable, it is a religious experience, a faith encounter with the Risen Lord who showed and continue to show himself to those who long and seek him out in their life, either for a physical or spiritual resurrection.
FRIST READING: ACTS 5:12-16
The first reading paints a very vivid picture of true fraternal and communal living in the early Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It was a Christian community of truthfulness, equity, justice and fairness. Hence, their testimonies through, constant prayer, fellowship, Eucharistic meal, and apostolic teaching brought joy, peace, increase in number, as well as wonders and signs.
Hence, with a sense of high morale and healing the early Christians Church were encouraged to give testimony to the Resurrected Christ. The healing mercy of God through Peter and the apostles restored many to health and freedom from evil.
Today, the Church of Christ through the sacrament of reconciliation continues to heal and restore to health of body, mind and spirit. Equally, through the awesome sacrament liberates from the clutches of evil and granting the unique freedom of the sons and daughter of god.
PSALM 117 or 118
The psalm invites us to reflect on the everlasting and enduring nature of the mercy and love of God to all, especially to sinners in need of his saving grace and mercy.
In the responsorial Psalm, we repeat several times, “His mercy endures forever!” God revealed His mercy, first and foremost, in sending His only begotten Son to become our Savior and Lord through His suffering, death, and Resurrection. Divine Mercy is given to us also in each celebration of the Sacraments (all instituted to sanctify us by Christ), especially that of Reconciliation.
SECOND READING: REVELATION 1:9-13, 17-19
The second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation given by Jesus to the Apostle John in exile on Patmos was intended to comfort and bolster the Faith of persecuted Christians for all time.
The reading assures us of the presence of the merciful Lord in our lives and encourages all of us to fight fear with Faith, and trepidation about the future with trust and Hope. The Risen Christ words are: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.
This is not only a vision where John sees risen Jesus, in the form of the glorious Son of Man with victory and power. It is an assurance or a guarantee of the perpetual presence of the Risen Christ in lives and affairs as a Church and individuals.
THE GOSPEL: JOHN 20: 19-31
In the Gospel of John 20:19-31, the Risen and Empathy Christ continues to appear and reappears to the fearful disciples assuring them of his realness and putting to rest their doubts and reservations on him.
In other words, the Risen Lord comforted the depressed community of his disciple with a greeting of peace and reaffirmed the uncertainty and doubts of Thomas with his presence. And there was overflowing joy and deepening faith.
The doubting Thomas affirms a solid faith in the Risen Christ after a personal experience: my Lord and my God. This declaration merits us an eternal blessing for those who believe in the Risen Christ without physical verification but faith alone.
On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us implore the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and have joy in the infinite merits of His crucifixion and resurrection.
Christ instruction to the apostles was as God had sent him forth, so he sent them forth. It means three things.
(a) It means that Jesus Christ needs the Church which is exactly what Paul meant when he called the Church “the body of Christ” (Eph.1:23; 1Cor.12:12). Therefore, the first thing this means is that Jesus is dependent on his Church.
(b) It means that the Church needs Jesus. A person who is to be sent out needs someone to send him. He needs a message to take; he needs a power and an authority to back his message.
He also might need someone to whom he may turn when he is in doubt and in difficulty. Without Jesus, the Church has no message. Without him she has no power or no one to turn to when up against it. This means that the Church is dependent on Jesus.
(c) There remains still another thing. The sending out of the Church by Jesus is parallel to the
sending out of Jesus by God. But no one can read the story of the Fourth Gospel without seeing that the relationship between Jesus and God was continually dependent on Jesus’ perfect obedience and perfect love.
Jesus could be God’s messenger only because he rendered to God that perfect obedience and love. It follows that the Church is fit to be the messenger and the instrument of Christ only when she perfectly loves him and perfectly obeys him
THE CHARACTER OF THOMAS STANDS OUT CLEAR BEFORE US
(i) He made one mistake. He withdrew from the Christian fellowship. He sought loneliness rather than togetherness. And because he was not there with his fellow Christians he missed the first coming of Jesus. We miss a great deal when we separate ourselves from the Christian fellowship and try to be alone.
(ii) However, Thomas had two great virtues. He absolutely refused to say that he understood what he did not understand, or that he believed what he did not believe. There is an uncompromising honesty about him. He was not the kind of man who would rattle off a creed without understanding what it was all about. Thomas had to be sure–and he was quite right.
THE AIM OF THE GOSPEL JOHN 20:30-31
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which have not been written in this book. These have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
It is quite clear that no passage in the gospels better sums up the aim of the writers than this.
(i) It is quite clear that the gospels never set out to give a full account of the life of Jesus. They do not follow him from day to day but are selective. They give us, not an exhaustive account of everything that Jesus said or did, but a selection which shows what he was like and the kind of things he was always doing.
(ii) It is also clear that the gospels were not meant to be biographies of Jesus, but appeals to take him as Saviour, Master and Lord. Their aim was, not to give information, but to give life.
It was to paint such a picture of Jesus that the reader would be bound to see that the person who could speak and teach and act and heal like this could be none other than the Son of God; and that in that belief he might find the secret of real life.
It is very important to note that, when we approach the gospels as history and biography, we approach them in the wrong spirit. We must read them, not primarily as historians seeking information, but as men and women seeking God.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ through your Divine and fathomable Mercy, you brought alive in us the Living Hope of the Resurrection. May we always and everywhere experience you in the faith community, in the Eucharist, in the Prayer, in the Sacred Scripture, Tradition and Teaching of the apostolic faith and so merit your declared blessedness of those who have not seen yet believe in you: The Risen and Powerful Lord. Hence, like Thomas declared openly: My Lord and My God. Amen! Alleluia!
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