IInd Sunday of Easter- Divine Mercy Sunday

IInd Sunday of Easter- Divine Mercy Sunday

Perhaps you've heard the story of the Yugoslavian judge who was electrocuted when he reached up to turn on the light while standing in the bathtub. This guy’s poor wife found his body sprawled on the bathroom floor. He was pronounced dead and was placed in a preparation room under a crypt in the town cemetery for twenty-four hours before burial.
Well, in the middle of the night, the judge came to life. The judge looked around at his surroundings and suddenly realized where he was. He got pretty excited and rushed over to alert the guard. But instead of being any help, the guard was terrified and promptly ran off.
Fortunately, though, the guard returned with a friend, and they released the newly-revived judge. The judge's first thought was to phone his wife and reassure her that he really wasn't dead. Unfortunately, he got no farther than, "Honey... it's me," when his wife screamed and fainted.

So, he decided that the best course of action was to enlist some friends. He went to the houses of several friends; but because they all had heard the news from his distraught wife, they all doubted that he was really alive. They were all convinced he was a ghost.
Finally, in a last desperate effort, he contacted a friend in another city who hadn't heard about his death. And that person was able to convince his family and friends that the judge really was alive. This story almost sounds like the one from the Gospel today.

Thomas thought seeing is the basis for believing, but Jesus corrected him, believing is seeing. Faith is seeing from the heart and the Spirit, not the eyes. The story of "doubting Thomas" is presented as a warning to those of us who have trouble trusting the spiritual side of life. We often assume that those who knew Jesus in the flesh had a great advantage over the rest of us and we may even envy them. In fact, however, the risen Lord is far more present to us now in the Spirit than he ever was in the flesh.
It is interesting that the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, doubting Thomas, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith. Look at his confession, "My Lord, and my God." Not my teacher. Not my Messiah. But my God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words of a doubter. Finally Thomas came to believe that without faith, no evidence is sufficient; with faith no evidence is necessary. Faith is believing in the power of God to transform us. Thomas believed that Jesus had the supreme power to change the lives of all beings. That is why he acclaimed him Lord and God.
Theologian Karl Barth once remarked that to say the old line from the creed, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church" does not mean that we believe in the church. It means rather to believe that God is present and at work in the church, that "in this assembly, the work of the Holy Spirit takes place, the work of the Holy Spirit becomes an event."

The tragedy that happened with Thomas was that he had separated himself from the disciples and therefore, in his solitude, missed the resurrection appearance. In this incident john is suggesting to us that Christ appears most often within the community of believers that we call the church, and when we separate ourselves from the church we run the risk of missing his unique presence and work in us.
The only Sunday Carrol, a little girl, missed was the Palm Sunday. When her parents came home from the Church with palms she asked where they got it. They said when Jesus came Jerusalem the people used the palms to welcome him and that is why they got this palms today. Carrol’s reaction was: Oh shucks, the only Sunday I did not go to Church Jesus turned up. Thomas also felt almost this way. The only time he was away from the group of other disciples Jesus came. We also miss his redeeming actions when he miss the Sunday gathering.
The Lord promised his abiding presence with his believing community. When two or three are gathered together in your name, I will be in your midst. I will be with you till the end of the world..

This Sunday is also called Divine Mercy Sunday. Pope John Paul II saw in the visions of a Polish saint, Faustina, a message Jesus Christ wished the world to focus on more: His Divine Mercy. His Mercy is powerfully shown in today's Gospel as the newly-risen Savior appears to those who had betrayed Him, those who in weakness had run far away from the soldiers and deserted him in His three-hour agony and death.
As Jesus came through those locked doors where they had huddled in fear of arrest, He did not upbraid or condemn them, but said with loving compassion, "Peace be to You." He forgave them for their weakness, their cowardice, and their sinfulness. He continued to heal them of their doubts and the fears.
Secondly, he did not fire them from their ministry, but commissioned them to preach His Name to the ends of the earth. He restored His trust in them, and loved them even more. He would eventually send His Spirit to strengthen them with His Divine Power.
As Jesus showed His Divine mercy to His apostles on this Sunday, the Church urges us this Sunday to show our gratitude and belief in His never-failing forgiveness for our sins and betrayals of His love. And let’s pray for a world that has abandoned His commandments, ignored His words, shunned His healing, and rejected His love.