Readings: Acts 2:42-47; 1Peter 1:3-9; Jn. 20:19-31
Touch Christ’s Wounds and Receive His Mercy
Easter is a celebration of the sacred and the secular, the celestial and the mundane, faith and doubt, the absence and the presence. It is a celebration of hate and love, the merciless and the merciful. It is a celebration of God’s mercy to mankind. Today, the 2nd Sunday of Easter, is the Divine Mercy Sunday. This devotion was promoted by St. John Paul ll. On April 30, 2000, during the Canonization of Faustina Kowalska, which took place on the second Sunday of Easter, the Pope officially designated this day as the Divine Mercy Sunday. This devotion is based on Sr. Faustina’s encounter with Jesus. According to the dairy of Faustina, she received from Jesus the biggest promises of grace related to the Devotion of Divine Mercy, in particular that a person who goes to sacramental confession and receives Holy Communion on that day, shall obtain the total forgiveness of all sins and punishment. In his message on April 22, 2001, a year after establishing the Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope John Paul ll emphasized during his Easter message: “Jesus said to St. Faustyna one day: “Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy.” Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity.”
The readings at this Mass reflect the mercy of God. In the first reading we see the community of God’s people bound together in mercy and love. Broken, yes, but full of hope. They enjoyed communal life, sharing, selling of property and goods, caring for each one’s needs, and sharing meals together. In this community there was someone who denied Christ, those who ran away from Him, the one who was absent from community gathering and prayer, and of course, those who wanted a share in the restored kingdom of Israel. Yet in the Gospel, Christ met them all together and wished them peace. There was no condemnation, no judgement, no malice, no anger; only love, forgiveness and mercy. Come, touch my wounds and be healed. Doubt no longer, it is I, do not be afraid.
Yes, there was healing, there was forgiveness; faith was restored, and a profession of faith was made: My Lord and my God! This is what mercy means: to have a heart for those who suffer or to have a heart willing to suffer for others. “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.” (1Peter 2:21). But that is not all. Christ gave the Spirit to His Apostles and entrusted to them the power to forgive sins. We experience the mercy of God more when we humble ourselves and go to Him in the sacrament of reconciliation and penance. There we meet, face to face with the God of mercy and love, a God of forgiveness, who said through Ezekiel the prophet: “As I live, says the Lord God, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man’s conversion, that he may live.” (33:11).
With the mercy of God, we know and are convinced that good will always triumph over evil, that life is stronger than death and that God’s love is more powerful than our sins. In the Paschal mystery we just celebrated, God our Father appeared to us as He is, a tender-hearted Father, who does not give up in the face of his children’s ingratitude and is always ready to forgive. As Paul reminds us, “Where sin increased, grace overflow all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 5:21-22).
Our opening prayer address the Father as “God of everlasting mercy.” And the psalm repeated several times, “His steadfast love endures forever.” All these readings illustrate God’s mercy in action. We are invited to share what we have with others, to feed the hungry, to fight injustice, to stand up for the truth and for what is right, and to know that God’s mercy is everlasting. If we see ourselves as undeserved recipients of God’s mercy and love, we will come to understand that ultimately, mercy results, not so much from human effort, as from God’s free gift to humanity.
And so today we are invited to experience God’s mercy if, in turn we want to be able to forgive others. For that is what we prayer for in the Lord’s prayer: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The spiral hatred and violence which stains with blood the path of so many individuals and nations, the world over, can only be broken and healed by the miracle of forgiveness and mercy. For God’s mercy is His way of dealing with the broken world and humanity that is so consumed with insatiable hunger for power. Let us commit our lives to the mercy of God. Let us resolve today to show mercy instead of judging others harshly and irrationally. May we not be so concerned with the wrong-doings of others for, “If you, Lord, mark our sins, Lord, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness and so you are revered.” (Ps. 130:3). May we always treat others as we want to be treated ourselves. Amen.
Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP
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