Cycle B Easter 2nd Week Divine Mercy Sunday

Mass introduction:
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. Following the release of his encyclical entitled Dives in
Misericordia [Rich in Mercy], in November 30, 1980, St. John Paul II instituted the Feast of the
Divine Mercy which is to be celebrated on the Sunday following Easter Sunday. The inspiration
for this feast came from one of the private revelations of Jesus to St. Faustina Kowalska in which
the Lord called for a special feast day to be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter.
  

“Seeing is believing,” this is what Thomas reminds his fellow disciples. “Unless I see the
mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his
side, I will not believe!” And we think that this is fair enough; humans as we are, we want to
experience a reality with our senses before we believe. There is one problem though: if we
believe only what we can see, we will never experience God’s presence or know Him at all.
So, should we believe only what our eyes can see or our hands can touch?
Just think about it for a moment. We live in a pandemic and it is surprising that many still
believe that this pandemic is not real, that the virus was an invention of these pharmaceutical
companies so that they can make money out of it. We have read newspaper stories about the
tragic and fatal effects on millions of people, and we are still counting. We have watched video
reports of people suffering from lockdowns and community quarantines in our effort to stop the
spread of the virus. But when we get home, everybody is alive and seem to be well. So, should
we believe what our eyes see or should we believe the reports we have seen and heard from
reliable sources?
Yes, “to see is to believe” but perhaps today, we are invited to another way of seeing. What
do I mean?

After Jesus was raised from the dead, Thomas refused to believe the reports that He was alive.
He said that unless he touched the nail marks in Jesus’ hands and the wound in His side, he
would not believe (John 20:24-25). When the Lord appeared to the disciples eight days later,
Jesus said to Thomas, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet have believed.” (v.29).
Come to think of it, none of us has ever physically encountered Jesus. None of us has ever
heard Him teach. No one has seen Him being raised from the dead. And yet we believe. Why?
The answer comes from our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles:
“The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his
possessions was his own, but they had everything in common . . . distributing to each according
to need.”
“With great power, the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus . . .”
In other words, the first Christian community understood its mission of living out the Spirit of
Mercy that Jesus breathed into them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are
forgiven them, whose sins you retain are retained.”
 And what is this Spirit of Mercy? The Latin word for mercy, “misericordia” is a combination
of two words: misereor and cor. Together, they mean “to have pity in our hearts” or “to be
moved” by the suffering or the mistakes of our brothers and sisters in faith.
In the early Christian Community that Luke describes in our first reading, they lived their
lives in imitation of the life of Jesus which is characterized by mercy and generosity. Despite
coming from different backgrounds and having diverse and sometimes conflicting views, they
were still one in heart and in mind, and together they looked out for the welfare of one another.
In fact, their love and mercy for one another was so evident that the number of people who
wanted to be Christian kept increasing because the example set by the lives of the disciples
and by the members of the early Christian Community.
And this is the first point. The Risen Christ filled His apostles with His Spirit. As we hear in
today’s First Reading, the apostles bore witness to His resurrection with great power. And
through the witness of their lives (a different kind of presence of Christ), more than their
words, they handed down through the Church, through the centuries, this same Spirit that Christ
breathed into them.
This brings us to our second point. Because we have received the love and mercy of God, then
we become the bearers of God’s love and mercy for others. Here is the logic. We love not
because God commands us to love them, nor is it because they are loved by God and therefore
worthy of being love by us. Rather, we love because God has placed in us, has entrusted to us,
his own love for them.
When the Lord breathed his Spirit into us—“Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive
are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”—he gives us the opportunity to
participate in the very love of God. It makes us become participants in the divine nature, which is
love, and thus, we are graced with a new capacity to love the way God loves. And this is the new
life that the Risen Christ gives us.

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put
my hand into his side, I will not believe!” Thomas doubted that the apostles saw the Risen Christ
because he wanted to see to believe. But what did he want to see? Did he have to see the Risen
Christ to believe? But perhaps, had he seen the eventual transformation in their lives that a close
encounter with the Resurrected Christ brings about, then perhaps he would have believed without
seeing.
Eventually, “the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great
power.” And this made countless generations of Christians believe even if they have not seen.
And may we be counted among the blessed who “have not seen and yet believe”. We also pray
for the grace to bear witness to what we have seen, by the example of our lives so that others too
may believe even if they have not seen. Amen!

“Oh, how great is the goodness of God, greater than we can understand. There are moments and
there are mysteries of the divine mercy over which the heavens are astounded. Let our judgment
of souls cease, for God's mercy upon them is extraordinary.” - Mary Faustina Kowalska

“Human mercy is proof of having received divine mercy.” - Alistair Begg

Even though we have not seen Jesus, we accept by faith the word of reliable witnesses, we
embrace the living Lord, and we believe.  

What is the message of today’s celebration? The appearance of the Risen Christ to the
disciples as narrated in today’s gospel reveals how we ought the live the new life that the Risen
Christ has given us, that even though we have not seen Jesus, we accept by faith the word of
reliable witnesses. And because we have been recipients of the mercy of God, which hopefully
was the fruit of our Lenten observation, then we have the duty to bring God’s mercy to others.


 Jesus told St Faustina, "I demand from you deeds of mercy... You are to show deeds of
mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere."
 This means doing good things for others not because they deserve it or to get a reward,
but simply in order to follow in the footsteps of our merciful Lord. 

Importance of Witnessing:

We become bearers of God’s Mercy

We all need to be reminded of these difficult truths, because life in this world can
get distracting.
And the reminder he is giving us today will bear fruit in our lives if we follow the ABC'sof the
Divine Mercy.
A. Ask for mercy.
The best way to ask for his mercy for ourselves is through the sacrament of confession,
entrusted to the Church on this very day 2000 years ago.
Here is what Jesus told St Faustina about confession:
 When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. 
 I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. 
 Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. (Diary, 1602)
But we can also ask for mercy for others, especially by praying for those who don't trust or
believe in Christ's mercy. 
B. Be merciful.
 Jesus told St Faustina, "I demand from you deeds of mercy... You are to show deeds of
mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere."
 This means doing good things for others not because they deserve it or to get a reward,
but simply in order to follow in the footsteps of our merciful Lord. 
But where can we find the strength to do that?
C. Completely trust in Jesus. 
 Jesus himself will give us his grace, if we let him. He will make us into ambassadors of
his mercy, just as he did with the first Apostles.
 Whenever we are afraid to Ask for mercy, when we feel too weak to Be merciful, we
should simply pray the prayer that Jesus told St Faustina to write underneath the image of
his Divine Mercy: "Jesus, I trust in you."
And let's start right now, during this Mass, when we receive the fountain of mercyhimself in
Holy Communion.
Nothing would please him more.
Add to Homily

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). When we
believe, we too can call Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”

Though we cannot see Him with our eyes, we can believe with our heart—He is Lord!