Homily of the Second Sunday of Easter (Acts 5:12-16, Ps.117:2-4.22-27, Rev. 1:9-13.17-19 & Jn. 20:19-31)
Today, in a special way, we celebrate the mercy of God our Father. In the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II proclaimed the Sunday after Easter a Sunday of Divine Mercy. The Pope himself was a great devotee of Divine Mercy and died on the eve of Divine Mercy in 2005.
The decision to declare the Second Sunday after Easter a Sunday of Divine Mercy came from the devotion to Divine Mercy. This originated with the Polish visionary Maria Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938). Sr. Maria Faustina had several apparitions of Jesus who revealed Himself to her as Divine Mercy. He told her to dedicate the Second Sunday of Easter to Divine Mercy from then on. It is, therefore, a time to reflect on God’s mercy towards us. It is also an opportunity to ask ourselves how merciful we are towards those around us, especially in this period that we celebrate the joy of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.
The joy of the Risen Lord is quite overwhelming. It gives the power that is beyond human understanding. The first reading narrates how the apostles continued the work that Jesus began out of love and mercy for those suffering. The apostles were able to work many miracles and healings by the power of the risen Christ that brought many to believe in Jesus and come to faith in Him. The people brought their sick to the streets for healing. Even the shadow of Peter was sufficient to bring healing and succor to the sick. And the second reading (Rev.1:9-13.17-19) narrates how John received the revelation from the Risen Jesus who commanded him to write down what he saw. Jesus described himself in the vision as the First and the Last (Alpha and Omega), the one who died but now lives forever and holds the keys of death and of the Underworld.
Jesus’ resurrection gives courage to all who suffer as a result of their Christian faith. This explains why, within this period of Easter, the Risen Jesus keeps appearing and re-appearing to his disciples at different times and at different locations in order to revive their drooping spirit. Last Sunday, the First Easter day, we read how very early in the morning of the First day of the week, Mary of Magdala and other women met with the empty tomb and later met with the Risen Lord himself who informed them to go and tell the brothers that he has risen. In the Gospel reading of this Second Sunday of Easter (Jn. 20:19-31), the Church presents us with the second part of that very story and of what happened later in the evening of that very First Day of Easter, as well as what happened subsequently eight days later.
The gospel reading of today is about two appearances of Jesus to his disciples. At the first appearance, Thomas was absent. When he was told about it, he did not believe it. He wanted to experience it himself and put it to the test by inserting his fingers into Jesus’ wounds. For him, seeing, and even touching, a kind of checking of facts, was very important. And that is sometimes understandable. You don’t always have to believe what people tell you. Sometimes you have to check the facts, even though there are so many truths that cannot be physically checked.
Thomas is not alone in this kind of thinking. In our time, when you talk to people about the resurrection, you usually get nothing more than a shrug or a pitying laugh of incomprehension in response. Even for those of us who hold to the belief in the resurrection, it is not easy to imagine what we actually believe. That is why there are many who do not want to speak about it in public anymore. In the light of science and all our knowledge and experience, which is always based on evidence, for many, the resurrection is nothing more than one of the stories from the Bible. It is therefore possible to understand the predicaments of Thomas when he was told that Jesus has risen from the dead. He might have been consumed with inner grief because of Jesus’ torture and death. And that brings doubt to his mind. Obviously, doubt is something that afflicts our minds a lot. There is a part of us that wants to question the existence of God and spiritual realities. There is a part of us that wants to question and doubt some of the mysteries of our faith. There is a part of us that wants to question and doubt the reality of the Resurrection, the reality of the Holy Eucharist, and so on. What we need to realize here is that the mind is the battlefield. Whatever takes control of a person’s mind has conquered the person.
If Jesus, after his death and resurrection, had appeared to Pontius Pilate and the soldiers, to Caiaphas, to King Herod, to all those who sat in the high court, the Sanhedrin, no one would have doubted his resurrection. But that is not how it happened. Jesus appears only to his disciples. Why did Jesus appear to those who believed in him and not to his enemies? It is certainly because ‘seeing’ and ‘appearing’ is something else than simply ‘seeing’ with the naked eye. His post-resurrection apparition is not meant to be an ‘exhibition’! It is an act of faith and has the goal of strengthening the faith of his disciples rather than being a public event to gain worldly glory and acclaim. We see that in His apparition to Paul on the road to Damascus. Paul could hear Jesus speak but those around him could not. Jesus did that to call Paul to faith for the mission he had for him.
Many saw the earthly Jesus from a close range. But the question is, “what did people see in Jesus?” The high priests, the Sadducees, and Pharisees saw in him a blasphemer who broke the law, especially the Sabbath law, one who ate with sinners and tax collectors, who touched the unclean and put God’s merciful love above law and commandment. The others, especially his disciples, saw through him. And by his words and deeds, they realized that he was the messenger of God and the Messiah. He was their ‘beloved Master’. But His death on the cross blinded them. In their culture, death on the cross was meant for one cursed by God and man. Out of fear, the disciples locked themselves up behind closed doors with closed hearts. However, they were together with the same questions and with the same experiences. Together they were sad, desperate.
Slowly a light went up for them. They began to realize that this Jesus, whom they had known, was no ordinary man, who had died and been buried. Jesus showed himself to be the true prophet who had died a martyr’s death out of love for God and man. They were, as it were, awakened and came to repentance. Jesus came back into their lives. Not as before, not as the earthly Jesus they could just see, but as the glorified one in God in whom they could believe.
The disciples of Jesus were able to come back into the light through the mercifulness of Jesus who came to them in spite of the fact that they had left him during his way of the cross to death on Golgotha. He gave them the Holy Spirit to come to understanding and to believe in him again as the Envoy of God. Now They have to proclaim it all over the world. Without the Holy Spirit, you cannot understand anything about God, because the naked eye and the naked heart can only see and understand naked earthly things.
We ourselves have not seen and known the earthly Jesus. The apostle Paul, for that matter, did not see Him either. On the basis of the gospels and the many testimonies of Paul and the first Christians, we have seen him in faith. We do not see him with the naked eye. So, we may count ourselves blessed because we are privileged to believe in Him, even without seeing Him (John 20:29). That Jesus is calling us now to go out like the apostles of old to proclaim Him everywhere and do the same works that he began. His Holy Spirit is with us. Let us, therefore, strive to bear this testimony and, like Thomas, proclaim our faith: My Lord and my God. Amen.