THE INEXHAUSTIBLE MERCY OF GOD
Divine Mercy! It is the inexhaustible mercy of God manifest upon all for us through the Risen Christ. Actually, 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.
Every second Sunday of Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday. We contemplate God’s mercy that brings us to the season of Easter Joy. As well as, the invitation to live out the communitarian mission of God´s mercy in the corporals and spiritual works of mercy.
OUR THEME
The readings for this Sunday are about God’s mercy, the necessity for trusting Faith and the need for the forgiveness of sins. It also borders on the theme of faith-seeking understanding during the crisis of faith. As we see in the case of the doubting Thomas who sought more evidence or understanding of the mystery of the resurrection.
Therefore, doubt is an expression of faith seeking a reason to believe. So doubting what I see or hear before believing is a way to a more assured faith. Doubt opens up the realm of faith-seeking understanding.
The readings invite us to this profound experience of mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation. We need a trusting Faith in the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus´ suffering, death and Resurrection.
Another main theme of this Sunday of community and faith in the early Christian community. The early Church had a community-based faith experience and a faith-experience-based personal encounter with the Risen Christ. In other words, our faith is a living expression of a true believer of Christ in a Christian community.
FIRST READING: ACTS 2:42-47
As a sign of their faith, the early Christians shared their possessions living a communal and testimonial life to the gospel. The early Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit was a Christian community of truthfulness, equity, justice, mercy, and fairness.
The mercy of God leads to acting lovingly in an unselfish way towards others in the community and the Christian life. It leads to a conviction that giving all to God and others is the ultimate goal of being a Christian.
COMMUNITY LIFE IS THE BASE OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
The early Christian community had doubts and hesitations about the mysteries of faith but overcame them with Jesus’ 40 days- explaining the scripture to them after the resurrection.
Therefore, they were able to form a faith community of believers who witnessed with an unselfish interest in ONE HEART AND ONE SOUL to the Risen Christ.
The first reading from Acts 2:42-47 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 meals, and apostolic teaching brought joy, peace, increase in number, as well as wonders and signs.
The Risen met his disciples more commonly together than individually and each moment was an occasion of faith. The authenticity of our faith is in the community of believers. That is how the name Christian came about. The followers of Christ from the early Christian community are known today as the Church.
When Jesus’ community of believers was of one heart and mind, and they had everything in common. It was an admired life that attracted many to join and witnessed the Risen Christ while practising charity among themselves.
Yet, amid abundance, many live in abject poverty and wants. Sad enough, the corporal works of mercy have become social services of free thinkers than religious obligations of the agents of pastoral and evangelization.
Let us ask God to make us conscious of the needs of others around us and to help us to know that in showing mercy through thought, words and actions to others, we witness and bear more testimony to Christ.
Psalm 117 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.
SECOND READING: 1 PETER 1:3-9
The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:3-9 emphasises the great mercy of God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As such, in the face of the indescribable joy, hope, praise and honour that await us due to Christ’s resurrection our momentary pains, sufferings and sacrifices amount to nothing.
Christians respond to Christ’s resurrection with hope, praise and joy. It emphasises the great mercy of God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
THE GOSPEL OF 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 about him.
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.
Equally, today’s Gospel of John 20:19-31 recalls Jesus’ institution of the Sacrament of Reconciliation: a Sacrament of Divine Mercy and by extension showing mercy to the doubting Apostle Thomas inviting him to a deeper faith of those who have not seen but believe in the Risen Christ.
DOUBTING IS FAITH-SEEKING UNDERSTANDING TO BELIEVE
Thomas doubted and did not only have an experience of the Risen Lord, but days of accompaniment to explain more clearly the mysteries of faith and the gift of the Holy Spirit
Thomas doubting the resurrection is a negative sign to faith seeking a reason to believe. In the actual believing in the resurrection is a really tough thing to do. It is one of the mysteries of our faith that does not make any logical sense.
It was incomprehensible to many in Jesus’ time and it is up till today for many Christians, the faith conviction of the resurrection as something real and concrete and not just theological speculation. Yet, Thomas’s doubt and faith demonstrated to us the Eucharistic response of my Lord and my God!
Like Thomas, we have self-doubt, doubt about many things or others and even more about God and the mysteries of our faith. However, these doubts should lead us to faith-seeking understanding.
Hence, it is right to pray for the divine assistant of God’s GRACE and MERCY to go through our doubts and faith crises looking more closely to the image of the Risen Christ! God´s mercy is reached through sincere confession and forgiveness. It lets go of all hurts even denying doubt of your worth by someone like Thomas of Christ’s resurrection. Jn. 20:19-31
THE UNFATHOMABLE AND INEXHAUSTIBLE MERCY OF GOD
Mercy is all that is, in God, in Christ and the Holy Spirit. The grace of a godly life is all the mercy of God acting in us towards others.
The Divine Mercy of God is the most 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
Furthermore, the psalmist presents us with a vivid image of the mercy of God: “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.
Pope Francis is the year of Mercy acclaim that Jesus Christ is the face of God to humanity. He is the visible manifestation of the Eternal God whose mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible.
We all need God to live on amidst our failures and sins. As well, we all need to receive mercy from others and give mercy to others.
Today is a day of mercy, let us ask the Merciful Lord to look kindly upon us and increase his mercy upon us. That in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to His holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ: My Lord and my God, through your resurrection and the action of the Holy Spirit, a living community of believers committed to the work of mercy sprang up. Help us to celebrate and practice Mercy with others through our actions, words and above all thoughts. Amen. Merciful Jesus – I trust in You. Amen
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