Year C / Eastertide / Divine Mercy Sunday
Readings: Acts 5.12-16/ Psalm 117.2-4, 22-24, 25-27a (R/v 1) / Revelations 1.9-11a, 12-13, 17-19 /John 20.19-31
Sisters and brothers, have you ever felt like you were caught up in a mystery? How did it feel? Confusing and disorientating? Clueless and needing to find out the clues to solve it? Or, simply stuck and anxious?
If we are honest, we have to admit that we are caught up in the mystery of life. Isn’t this why we try to answer these questions: “why am I alive?” “what is my life for?” and probably “what’s next?” when death catches up with us.
Come to think of it, isn’t religion a mystery too? Why do we believe? How should I believe? What is the better way to live my religious belief? We all try to make sense of these questions repeatedly.
History records that Jesus did die. The Gospels tell us that Jesus did rise from the dead. Yet we still grapple with the mystery of how Jesus’ death saves and how his Resurrection redeems us for God eternally. This is what we call the Paschal Mystery. The honest amongst us will also ask, “How did Jesus rise from the dead and enter into glory with God?
We especially try to make sense of all this at Eastertime. Christians recourse to words to do this. Like these words from the Entrance Antiphon of the Easter Sunday Mass last Sunday:
I have risen, and I am with you still, alleluia
You have laid your hand on me, alleluia.
Too wonderful for me this knowledge, alleluia, alleluia.
I have risen, and I am with you still, alleluia
You have laid your hand on me, alleluia.
Too wonderful for me this knowledge, alleluia, alleluia.
We also use images because they give form and shape to help us understand this mystery. Images like those in Caravaggio’s painting, “The Incredulity of St Thomas” which is today’s gospel story.
This gospel for today’s celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday also focuses us on the mystery of God’s mercy at work through Jesus who came to Thomas. Let us bring together the Easter Sunday entrance antiphon and Caravaggio’s painting to help us glimpse three insights into how the risen Jesus reveals the mystery of God’s mercy at work in all our lives.
First, God’s mercy is faithful
Jesus says that to see him is to see God. This is why Jesus’ faithfulness to his disciples reveals God’s faithfulness to humankind.
The risen Jesus greets his dismayed and bewildered disciples three times in today’s gospel, saying, “Peace be with you”. Peace is the same word Jesus used at the Last Supper when he said, "my peace I leave you, my peace I give you." By repeating the gift of peace that he gave to them before his death, the risen Jesus now re-establishes their relationship.
In Caravaggio’s painting, the risen Jesus stands amidst his disciples. This should remind us that Jesus is always present in our midst, always seeking to be in friendship with us, even in our darkest moments. Yes, Jesus is Emmanuel, “God-with-us.”
We know this. We believe this. We say “amen” to this truth as we gather around this altar each Sunday and approach Communion. Jesus comes to be with us whether we sinned, or abandoned him like the disciples. Even if we have denied him like Peter, Jesus comes to us. Our only response must be “Amen” – and so it is.
This why we have every right to hope. This is why we are indeed an Easter people. Yes, no matter how we have sinned and how far away we are from God, the risen Jesus is faithful: he will come to forgive and redeem us.
The first line of the entrance antiphon from Easter Sunday proclaims this beautifully: “I have risen, and I am still with you, alleluia”. Isn’t this how we experience Jesus in our lives – as always forgiving because he himself is Divine Mercy?
Second, God’s mercy transforms
Jesus appears to the apostles. Thomas is missing. He refuses to believe their claim that Jesus has risen. He wants empirical proof before he believes: “Unless I put my finger in the nail marks in his hands and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
Don’t we make the same demands when our prayers are unanswered or we feel God is absent?
But Jesus comes to Thomas. He comes to counter Thomas’ doubt. He also does something more; he transforms Thomas – from one whose mind doubts to one whose heart believes. Thomas believes because Jesus laid his hand on Thomas’ hand and directs it to touch his wounds as Caravaggio shows.
In touching Jesus, Thomas does not touch a human body broken and scarred; he touches wounds God has transfigured into channels of mercy. This is the image of the Divine Mercy we know so well.
“My Lord and my God”. Here is Thomas proclaiming that Jesus is alive and he believes. It is also a cry announcing how merciful God is. It must be so because God’s mercy in Jesus does not reject the thick-headed, the weak, and the doubting. Instead, God’s mercy gives them, like Thomas, the power to become strong, loving, and wise. “Behold,” says Jesus, “I make all things new.” (Rev 21:5).
Haven’t we experienced God’s mercy transforming us in similar ways? Who here has not been forgiven and renewed by God’s mercy? Shouldn’t we then join Thomas in proclaiming the second line of the Easter Sunday entrance antiphon: “You have laid your hand upon me, alleluia”?
Third, God’s mercy is fruitful
After greeting his disciples with peace, Jesus breathes on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.
Doesn’t this remind us of the moment in the Book of Genesis when God’s Spirit hovered over the waters? The Spirit hovered before God said, “let there be light”, and creation abounded in the world.
Jesus breathes this same Spirit of life onto the apostles. And the word Jesus speaks now is of redemption: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Here is Jesus exercising mercy. This is the first thing Jesus does on the day of his resurrection: he gives his apostles the power to forgive sins. Receiving his mercy, they are to go out to the whole world and to be equally merciful. This is Jesus’ command because this is how they will reconcile humankind to God, restore right relationships amongst people and bring about peace – all these that sin destroys.
This mercy astonishes. Caravaggio captures this in the look the other apostles had as Jesus guides Thomas’ hand into his wounded side, into this channel of God’s mercy. This mercy is fruitful: it gives peace to all.
And isn’t peace the true grace Thomas receives, as we also do each time we confess God’s mercy at the Sacrament of Reconciliation? How can we not delight in the scandalous wonder that God’s mercy knows no bounds?
And since we have all received God’s mercy, shouldn’t we share it with others by proclaiming in word and deed the third line of the Easter antiphon: “Too wonderful for me this knowledge, alleluia, alleluia”?
God’s mercy is faithful. God’s mercy transforms. God’s mercy is fruitful.
This is the experience Thomas had when the risen Jesus appeared and drew him into relationship again. I believe this is the same experience we have had and we will continue to have because Jesus always comes to draw us into his loving embrace to receive and savour God’s divine mercy. This is God’s way of loving you and me.
This is why the best way we can enjoy Easter is to allow ourselves to really savour and relish its goodness: that in Jesus the mystery of God’s mercy is very good for us all.
Preached at Church of the Transfiguration
artwork: churchpop.com
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