2nd Sunday of Easter Year
B & Divine Mercy Sunday - April 7, 2024
Acts
of the Apostles 2:32-35; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31
Theme:
“Whose Sins You Forgive are Forgiven Them”
Since 2000 (24 years ago), the Church has
designated the Second Sunday of Easter as “Divine Mercy Sunday.” The background
of the feast of Divine Mercy is centered on a devotion stemming from the
private revelations of Saint Faustina Kowalska from Poland. To make these
private revelations official, Pope John Paul II, in 2002, added “Plenary
Indulgence” to Divine Mercy Sunday. “Plenary Indulgence” is a complete pardon
that Jesus grants to us as he himself revealed it to Saint Faustina, “I want to
grant a complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and receive
Holy Communion on the Feast of My Mercy.” (Diary 1109). Through the Scripture
readings of this Mass, our Holy Mother Church invites us to contemplate our
Risen Lord as the ambassador of mercy (Gospel). She exhorts us to promote unity
in our families and Church community by loving God and obeying his commandments.
(first and second readings).
Our Gospel tells us that the disciples
huddled behind locked doors. This was for fear of “the Jews” who executed
Jesus. Their master died, everything seemed finished, and they felt like they
were the losers in this scene. Moreover, they are thinking at this moment that
the people who crucified their Master are searching for them to execute them,
too. They live with great fear and confusion. Amid their terrible feelings,
Jesus appears. Many of us today are going through similar crises. Anxieties,
worries, and any other sufferings that we face daily create fear and force us
to close ourselves off in our minds. The way Jesus stands in front of his
fearful disciples is the same way the mercy of God is always in front of us. We
need to recognize and embrace it. The Mercy of God is like the wind: invisible,
but its effects can be sensed. It lifts burdens off our shoulders and gives us
a new chance to do good.
To the disciples and us, Jesus says:
“Peace be with you”. He knew that his followers needed peace as their hearts
were troubled. He also knows that you and I need peace as our hearts, too, are
troubled due to all the trials that we go through. Let us listen attentively to
our Lord, who is saying to us right now, “Peace be with you.” This is not the
peace the Jews employ to greet each other (see John 14: 27); it is instead the peace
of resurrection. It resurrects the hope, confidence, and courage that we lost
because of fear caused by the suffering of this world.
After strengthening us with his “peace,”
Jesus sends us on a mission: “As the Father has sent me, so, I send you.” He
also gives us the Holy Spirit to strengthen us in our mission. Notice how Jesus
gives the Holy Spirit. He breathes on his disciples. This recalls the story of
creation in the book of Genesis when God created a human being. The man was not
yet a living being until God blew into his nostrils the breath of life. (See
Genesis 2: 7). By breathing on us on this Divine Mercy Sunday, Jesus recreates
us. We have a new life, a life of resurrection. All of us, priests, lay and
religious people, are made “apostles,” the “sent,” each with his/her specific
calling. Let us go out to the mission. This mission consists of bringing the
good news of the resurrection of Christ to everyone, especially those who still
lock themselves off because of fears caused by all the crises they go through. Let
us extend to them the peace of the resurrected Lord we have received in this
Mass.
Our mission also consists of reaching out
to all people who do not attend Church, especially the old members of our
Church community. We are sent to them to encourage them to come to the Church
of Jesus and experience his peace of the resurrection as the apostles did in
our first reading. The sacred author of the Acts of the Apostles tells us that
the community of believers was of one heart and mind. They put all their
possessions in common. This is because the apostles bore witness to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded to them all. Let
us also bear witness to the resurrection of Christ today among our family
members and brothers and sisters in our neighborhoods and everywhere we live and
make our Church community become like this community of believers in our first
reading. We need to live in unity.
The
mission of the Resurrected Jesus is also the mission of forgiving sins. Our
Gospel says that after breathing on his disciples, Jesus empowered them to forgive
or retain the sins of people (see v. 23). Our Holy Mother Church defined that
this power to forgive sins is exercised in the sacrament of reconciliation (penance)
called Confession by the ordained priests, who are the apostles’ successors. We
seek three things in the sacrament of confession: forgiveness of our sins,
reconciliation with God and our fellow humans whom we offended, and the healing
of spiritual, emotional, or psychological wounds that sin causes.
First,
in the confession, we implore Jesus to forgive our sins. The way we go to our
shower rooms and take a shower to clean our body from any stain of dirt is the
same way we need to go to the confessional room to take a spiritual shower and
clean our souls from any stain of sins. On the day of our baptism, we wore a
white garment and were given a lit candle. We were told to keep this white
garment (which stands for our souls) unstained and keep our souls' lamps always
lit until our Lord Jesus returns. These two symbols call us to frequently use
the sacrament of confession whenever we sin to ensure we are ready to welcome
our Lord whenever he comes back or calls us with him.
Second,
in the sacrament of confession, we seek two reconciliations: vertical
reconciliation (with God) and horizontal reconciliation (with our fellow
humans). Note that the priest who listens to our confessions plays two roles.
First, in vertical reconciliation, the priest represents Jesus, who stands on
behalf of God, whom we offend through our sins. When we confess our sins to a
priest, we confess to Jesus himself. He is our mediator with God. The priest
who acts in persona Christi accepts our confession, absolves our sins,
and reconciles us with God. Second, in confession, we also reconcile with our
fellow humans we offend. For some reason, most of the time, it is difficult and
even complicated to meet all the people we hurt and ask for forgiveness to seek
reconciliation with them. That is why, in confession, the priest stands for all
the people we offended by our sins. He listens to us, accepts our apologies,
forgives us, and reconciles with us on behalf of these people. We should not
feel afraid or shy to tell our sins to the priest. So, confession restores our
relationships with God and our brothers and sisters.
Third,
because sins can cause emotional, psychological, or spiritual wounds, we also
seek healing in confession. We speak with doctors, psychologists, or counselors
to seek healing; it should be the same way we need to speak with a priest to
seek emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing through confession.
Sometimes, the healing process takes time. In this case, I advise “us” to
continue the process in a spiritual/psychological direction with the same
confessor priest or a professional psychologist.
Let
us take advantage of this beautiful sacrament of confession that Jesus
instituted to forgive our sins, reconcile us with God and our fellow humans,
and provide us with the spiritual, psychological, or emotional healing we need.
Thomas was absent in the first appearance
account. He did not believe his companions who told him about their experiences
with the resurrected Lord. He conditioned his faith upon physical proof:
“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.” (v. 25b). Thomas
here represents all of us today who are called to believe in the resurrection
of our Lord although we have not seen him physically. A week later, when Jesus
appeared again to them, he invited Thomas to touch the marks of the nails on
his hands and side. Jesus invites us to touch the marks of our fellow humans,
who suffer around us, as proof of his resurrection. He is present through the sick,
prisoners, marginalized, and poor. So, the mission we receive from the
resurrected Lord also consists of ministering to the people in need. We see
Jesus physically through them.
The liturgy of this Divine Mercy Sunday reminds us of the gift of forgiveness we receive from God through the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist. The breath of Mercy of Jesus gives us a new life and enables us to become his missionaries wherever we live. Amen.
Rev. Leon Ngandu, SVD
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