2nd Sunday of Easter: Mercy and Mystery

 

Divine Mercy Sunday

John 20: 19 - 31

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042422.cfm

If you’re old enough to remember that summer day, July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong, the first human being to ever walk on the moon, stepped foot out of the lunar lander on to the surface of the moon more than 250,000 miles from planet earth, such an accomplishment boggles the mind.

From the moment in 1961 when President Kennedy challenged scientists and this Country to put a man on the moon within ten years’ time and the actual moment which happened just eight years later, we have come a very long way in the advance of technology and science over the last 100 years.  More than at any time in human history technology runs our lives and there seems to be no stop to it. Sadly, much of that technology is also used for nefarious purposes as we see at the present time between Russia and Ukraine. We knew America was in a race with the Soviet Union to be first in the ability to send humans beyond this planet so we came to believe in our scientific superiority. None of us were present on the moon to witness the actual moment but we believe it even though we haven’t seen; that is the essence of faith.

This second Sunday of our joyful Easter season still contains echoes from last weekend’s Easter celebration.  We heard “Alleluias” for this first time after more than 40 days of silence and the joyfulness of the music was tangible.  But what were we celebrating?  A first century prophetic teacher and wonder worker named Jesus from ancient Nazareth in Israel who died in agony and cruel torture by the occupying Roman powers on a cross near the city of Jerusalem whose followers claimed that he rose from the dead three days after his humiliating death.  They even went so far as to actually claim that he is the Son of God and proposed for all that we believe in him.  What could be more fantastic than that? It makes belief in the moonshot a “no problem” fact.  In the Gospel this Sunday we hear Jesus say: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

For the Apostle Thomas as he confronted his own fellow disciples with what seems to be reasonable skepticism, “I will not believe” unless I see him and touch him, that incredulity considering the claim by the others seems logical; maybe too logical when we walk in the realm of faith.  After all, wouldn’t any of the other Apostles have the same doubt if they had not been there? But, Thomas becomes a reflection of all of us and the call to live by faith and not by sight.

Our Gospel story is a powerful reminder that faith which demands proof as it did in the case of Thomas the absent Apostle, must go beyond merely what our hands have touched. Our Lord comes to his fearful inner circle of friends not in resentment or to shame them but rather he addresses them: “Peace be with you.” Jesus’ mercy is extended to his Apostles, hidden in fear for good reason, as he suddenly appears to them in his risen form. In this event we are also reminded that the credibility of each of the Apostles rests on their experience of seeing the risen Lord.  We believe them because they speak from experience. You cannot deny what your eyes have seen and your ears have heard and what you have touched with your hands.  They were all present with Thomas in that upper room when the risen Christ came to them.

He breathes on them and says “receive the Holy Spirit.” He entrusts them with the power to forgive sin in his name and we come to know that the fundamental call for them and for us is to become his missionary disciples. To be Christian is to have a sense of mission. This is mercy as only God can extend. It certainly reinforces the quintessential sacrament of God's mercy which is Confession.  In that beautiful sacrament of healing, we encounter the merciful risen Lord, he breathes his mercy into our repentant hearts, and we are healed.  Go to confession, no matter how long it has been. Do not deny yourself this grace which Jesus so eagerly wants to extend to us. 

Our beautiful first reading is a testimony of the early Christian experience in Jerusalem during those first years after the Ascension of Jesus.  The disciples gathered in an area of the Temple on the eastern side near the court of the Gentiles where Jesus had preached and miracles had been worked, solomon’s portico. Here we are told that great wonders were worked through the ministry of the Apostles, that the early Jewish community found many members embracing this new Way shown to them through the convincing preaching and transformed lives of the Apostles and others around them.  There is something more going on that is beyond human control. Such events and its continuation down through the centuries are indeed tangible proof that our faith today is no less convincing. And we live in a world that increasingly is pulling farther away from God, farther away from the truth and from Jesus’ call to be peace makers.

So, we hear in the Gospel how Jesus spoke his words of peace to the fearful Apostles and to Thomas even a week later.  Those words transformed these men to become radically different from who they were.  It changed their fear into trust and confidence and is the essential message of the Easter season and of this Divine Mercy Sunday.  Although life is a struggle sometimes, not always an easy road and we all have our fears and doubts including those about the faith.  To know that we are not alone in such times of fear and doubt.  That God is with us if we look for him.  That faith in Christ is like an anchor for a ship; even though we may drift we will never go too far if we stay on that ship of Christ’s Church.

We live in incredible times whether it’s a flight to the moon, Mars or who knows where. The bottom line is that God is ever present with a genius and a power beyond anything we may develop.  He is both mystery and mercy and he is our Lord and God.

God of everlasting mercy,

who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast

 kindle the faith of the people you have made your own,

increase the grace you have bestowed,

that all may grasp and rightly understand

in what font they have been washed,

by whose Spirit they have been reborn,

by whose Blood they have been redeemed.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

 

(Roman Missal: Collect of Mass)