Homily on Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

Readings: Ps 118: Act. 4: 32-35; 1 Jo. 5:1-6; Jn. 20:19-31

  

Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, in this second Sunday of Easter, the mother church invites us to understand God’s immense love for us. As a response to God’s love manifested in His only son the three readings help us to reflect on God’s mercy. As his faithful children we therefore are encouraged to thank him and praise him for his goodness. In fact the Responsorial Psalm invites us to give thanks to the Lord for he is good and for his love has no end.   

The gospel reading continues to explain to us about the immense love of Jesus; even when his own frightened to speak for him, afraid to stand for him and lacked faith to witness to him and secured themselves in the closed doors instead of overcoming trials and tribulations. Like the apostles we do face a lot of difficulties, doubts and uncertainties. It is at this situation the Lord intervenes and strengthens us through his Holy Spirit and by his peace of resurrection. Therefore, the Church wants us to meditate on the divine mercy during this second Sunday of the Easter because it is in his mercy we are saved.

In the gospel Jesus appears to the disciples who were locked up in the closed doors for the fear of the Jews; because their faith in Jesus was dominated by their fear of the Jews. But my dear brothers and sisters, in Jesus Christ the good news is that our God is an incarnated God and a compassionate God who does not abandon us in our difficulties and fears. Instead he helps us in our lack of faith and strengthens us in his love and mercy provided we sincerely long for him like Thomas who doubted not because he did not want to believe but rather because he wanted to believe for himself. Doubt is not the enemy of faith; doubt is rather the friend of faith. If I were to mention the names of certain disciples to you and ask you to write down the first word that comes into your mind, it is unlikely you would come up with the same words. If I were to mention the name of Judas many of you would write down the word "betray" but not all of you. If I were to mention Simon Peter, some of you would write down the word "faith," but not all of you. If I were to mention the names of James and John, some of you would write down the phrase "Sons of Thunder," but not all of you. But when I mention the word Thomas, there is no question about the word that you would write down. It would be the word doubt. We have associated him with the word doubt and coined a phrase to describe him "Doubting Thomas." 

In the first three gospels, we are told absolutely nothing at all about Thomas. It is in John's Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Surprisingly, it was Thomas who said: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It was a courageous statement, yet we don't remember him for that. We also fail to point out that in this story of Thomas' doubt we have the one place in all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is stated. It is interesting, the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith? Look at his confession, "My Lord, and my God." Not teacher. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if he was recognizing a fact. You are my Lord and my God are certainly not the words of a doubter but of the one who was convinced of his God.

History has remembered him for this scene where the resurrected Christ made an appearance to the disciples in a home in Jerusalem. Thomas was not present and when he heard about the event he refused to believe it. Maybe he was the forerunner of modern day cynicism. Maybe the news simply sounded too good to be true. Thomas said: Unless I feel the nail prints in his hands I will not believe. Thomas has separated himself from the disciples and therefore, in his solitude, missed the resurrection appearance. Here, John Suggests, that Christ appears most often within the community of believers that we call the church, and when we separate ourselves from the church we take a chance on missing his unique presence. But the story doesn't end here. The second time Jesus made his appearance, Thomas was present and this time he too witnessed the event. This time he Encountered Jesus and believed in him.  

 
In this Encounter, Jesus with his merciful heart did not blame Thomas for doubting. He understood that once Thomas worked through his doubts, he would be one of the surest men in all Christendom. Therefore, dear friends in Jesus, it is not fair to equate doubt with disbelief; for a sincere doubt leads to the discovery of the truth. In fact on the cross Jesus cried out, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" At a given time in history, even Jesus had doubts.   

If you remember well your faith classes, the authentic faith always begins with intellectual honesty, and doubt is the bedrock of honesty. Therefore, faith is not the absence of doubt; it is the overcoming of doubt. May be Thomas and his friends at the beginning were having similar doubt. Is resurrection a reality? Are the scoffers correct? Is it all simply an ancient myth? It was Alfred Lloyd Tennyson who said: "There lives more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds." So we find ourselves crying out, as did the disciple who said “My Lord and my God,” I believe, Help thou my unbelief.   

The Second message that we learn from Thomas is that we must move beyond doubt to faith. It is in this journey that the Lord transforms doubt into faith and gives us His peace and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In fact Peace be with you is the greeting Jesus made after his resurrection. True peace is perhaps the most sought after gift in our modern word. We believe that the true source of unending peace - Christ. Believe in Christ and you will be a proud owner of a peaceful heart. Peace with ourselves, accepting ourselves as we are and trying to be faithful to our Christian conscience. Peace with others through the practice of mutual respect and by learning to forgive one another. Peace with God, the source and ultimate goal of our quest for peace. Giving them his Spirit, Jesus gives his Apostles the power to remit sins; thus he makes human beings participate in his triumph over evil and sin. The Risen Lord gives Thomas who did not believe the testimony of his fellow Apostles a lesion which is significant also for us: it is necessary to pass from vision to faith. The new mode of life of the Risen Lord means that he cannot be known as an earthly man, but as one who is present to us in the sacraments and in the life of the Church.

In the first reading, we are told that the community was drawn to the lord by the powerful testimony of the apostles. In fact by this act testimony the entire community was of one heart and soul. This oneness in Jesus made them to recognise each other as their own brothers and sisters. As a consequence, they begin to share everything in fraternity of Jesus. So much was their fraternity that one among them named Barnabas meaning son of encouragement sold a field and gave the money to the apostles.

The second reading tells us that it is faith that conquers the world. Johns says that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. As his children we are encouraged to love God and love obey his commandments. Only those who love him can obey his commandments because they believe that Jesus is the son of God. And so for them it is not burdensome to obey his ways. This is what the first reading says that the first Christians loved Jesus and so they obeyed his commandments by loving one another and by sharing their goods with each other in the name of God.   

Christ is the divine mercy. From his birth to His resurrection His life is a complete account of mercy of God. Throughout the history of the world when mankind has turned away from God and begun to ‘wander aimlessly’ like a lost frightened child God in His mercy has sent us special prophets, saints and at times even our lady, to point out our mistakes and lead us back to Him. In 1925 Jesus Himself personally came to correct and guide mankind through His special instrument Sr. Faustina. He tells Sr. Faustina that the consequence of this wandering, rejection and lukewarmness towards God is a great feeling of uneasiness, confusion and lack of peace in the world. He gave her the mission to proclaim His mercy to the whole world.   

If love and mercy is the nature of God, then His sons and daughters too, created in His image and recreated into the image of His son are called to become mercy. ‘Be Merciful just as your Heavenly Father is Merciful.’ Let us in this Eucharist allow God’s mercy to flow into our hearts so that in turn we could be merciful to others. This Thomas and the early Christians did. Having seen the Risen Jesus himself, having touched and felt him, he made that profound act of faith as he exclaimed: “My Lord and my God.” We cannot place our hands in the side of Jesus as Thomas did.  But we can place our Trust in the Testimony of Scriptures. Touching plays a very imp role in human life.  Children get their 1^st taste of life from the way they are touched. Wounds need to be touched, if not how they will be healed. Thomas was a wounded man:  wounded by grief, loneliness, unbelief and despair.  He too needed a touch.