Divine Mercy Sunday
Acts 2: 42-47 1Peter 1: 3-9 John 20: 19-31
“Bring your hand and feel the place of the nails,
and do not be unbelieving but believing.”
Never in human history has a dead body escaped burial until the early Christians claimed it happened to Jesus.
Between the discovery of the empty tomb and Mary Magdalene recognizing Jesus when he called her by name, what really happened? Those who put Jesus to death, paid bribes so that it would be known that the body was stolen. After leaving the tomb, Jesus makes several appearances to his followers, and today there is proof of the crucified body transformed into the living body of Christ. Thomas was directed to put his hand and feel the place of the nails, and at this moment, the resurrection is fact and not fiction.
It is incredible that the human God would undergo the persecution and indignities he endured after completing a mission of healing and teaching. How could a loving merciful God allow this? Why didn’t he come down off the cross when time and again he performed miracles on others?
The only rationalization can be found in Divine Mercy. God’s mercy is so profound that Jesus went so far as to allow Thomas to give positive proof that this person who comes and goes about is truly the Christ who was crucified, died, and buried. God’s mercy is not bound by time; it is freely given now as it was in the post-resurrection era.
The choice is to believe that Jesus rose or to point to the Gospel of John to prove to others that it really happened, but that is not the point. The essence of our belief in God is mercy, and Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is our call to be merciful to all, as Jesus was on earth and continues to shower us with the graces to be the mercy for the world today.
Prayer: Risen Lord, thank you for showing us how to be merciful people, and thank you for those who incarnate mercy in the presence of those in need of love and care today. We pray that the hatred and apathy evident in the lives of many may soon be a miracle of your mercy.
Sr. Dorothy Maxwell, OP