Second Sunday of Easter – Divine Mercy Sunday
This weekend we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. Through God’s divine mercy, even when we turn our back on Him through sin, His divine mercy is present, always offering us a safeguard, an opportunity, through faith and repentance, to salvation.
I graduated from high school in May of 1980 and left for basic training in the Air Force in November of that same year. Audrey and I were already secretly engaged. Our plan was to wait until I went through basic training and then technical school and received my first permanent duty station orders. Then, I was going to call and ask her dad if I could marry her. Of course, I was going to marry her regardless of what he said, but this was all part of the plan.
Basic, tech. school, the morning I received my orders. The story…
How could this be. It was nonsense. I was filled with fear, disbelief, and denial. I thought: “I can’t call her and tell her this!” After all of our planning, there was no way this was happening. I couldn’t believe that this was even real. This was certainly not the end – the plan we had talked about & planned.
I can tell you undeniably the evidence is crystal clear that this was the best thing that could have happened to us. God’s plan was greater than ours. But it was impossible to believe in the face of what appeared to be such a crisis.
Second reading, we hear Peter say: Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us, who, by the power of God are safeguarded through faith to salvation.
This was essentially the message Jesus shared with His disciples and with the world – everyone who would listen – while He was in the world. And yet, when His hour came, beginning in the Garden of Gethsemane, he experienced: Judas’ betrayal, the rest of the disciples deserted Him and fled, and Peter’s denial of Him three times.
Then, at the tomb, as we heard on Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene was so grief-stricken because had no consideration that Jesus had been resurrected. Resurrection never…entered…her…mind. And in every Gospel, on Easter morning, when the apostles were told of the resurrection, the text says, none of them believed it. That’s repeated numerous times. In fact, the text says “the story of resurrection seemed like nonsense”. Betrayal, desertion, denial, nonsense were what Jesus received.
And yet, the very next thing we hear, the very next words out of Jesus’ mouth, after all of that – when He appears to them in the upper room the first time – are the words: “Peace be with you”. He doesn’t say “…what the heck, guys?” “Where’d you all go?” I thought you said you would be with me even to death?” He didn’t say any of that. The first words out of His mouth are “Peace be with you”. And then, (this sometimes gets overlooked in His first appearance in the upper room) He shows them His hands and His side. And I’m sure they were all standing there speechless, with their eyes and their mouths wide open. And then Jesus repeats: “Peace be with you.” He brought the whole message: His whole life’s work to fruition in that moment. “Peace be with you”, I am risen, and all is forgiven, now go and get to work spreading this message.
Now Thomas wasn’t there when this happened. The Gospel doesn’t mention where he was, (fish, building an orphanage) but it says he wasn’t there. I’ve always found that to be a little odd. The rest of the apostles were there, so where was Thomas?
Perhaps Thomas wasn’t there Jesus’ first appearance…because he wasn’t supposed to be there. I think maybe Thomas represents us.
This occurrence – the second appearance, when Thomas was there – gives Jesus not only the opportunity to demonstrate His forgiveness at yet another level – to people for whom this belief is difficult.
But it also gives Jesus the opportunity to speak to us the words He knew we would need to hear: “Blessed are those…who have not seen and have believed”.
I don’t think Thomas’ absence the first time through was an accident.
Jesus knew that, very shortly, no one was going to see Him again for a very long time. He also knew that 2,000 years later, coming out of Easter, and in life in general, we would have moments of doubt and difficulty believing in the resurrection. This is hard stuff! “I do believe, help my unbelief.”
We might say people in the first century weren’t all that smart, I mean they didn’t even have cell phones. But one thing they knew was that people don’t come back from the dead. Coming back from the dead was not a thing then any more than it is now. In fact, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead…that was a big part of why they killed him. Couldn’t get their heads around all of that.
So, it was obviously very difficult for even the disciples to believe that Jesus had risen…from the dead.
And so now we are here, celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday. And we hear the words:
Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet you believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.