We are called to show mercy because mercy has been shown to us.

St John Paul II named the Second Sunday of Easter “Sunday of Divine Mercy” in response to Sister Faustina’s Divine Mercy devotion which offered spiritual comfort to people worldwide.

Last year on Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis declared this year to be a Jubilee Year of Mercy.  Pope Francis said:  “We are called to show mercy because mercy has been shown to us.”

In today’s Gospel, the Risen Jesus appeared to his disciples who were behind locked doors in a state of fear.  The first words Jesus spoke:  “Peace be with you.”  Jesus then went on to speak of forgiveness:  “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven then.”

The clearest expression that we are the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus is when we pardon others.  The necessary condition for having a joyful heart is our capacity to forgive others.

May Divine Mercy Sunday in this Jubilee Year of Mercy remind us that Jesus made mercy our life’s ideal and a criterion for our faith’s credibility.  May we let go anger, wrath, violence, and revenge and be immersed in the merciful love of Jesus, and may we share this beautiful gift of forgiveness with one another.

John’s Gospel describes the Risen Christ among the disciples, in which the breath of the Lord carries the gift of the Spirit, empowering them as the Church to carry out the Church’s mission of forgiveness. 

In the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and in all the ways we bear witness to the merciful love of Jesus, may forgiveness – both given and received – be a defining component of the Church of the Holy Spirit.

What is the grace we seek on Divine Mercy Sunday:  the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which we experience the pardon and the forgiving love of Jesus in our lives.  Secondly, we ask for the grace to forgive the person or persons in our lives whom we have found to be very difficult to love.  None of us get a free pass on the need to share forgiveness with even those who have hurt us.

The Gospel account traces the faith journey of the apostle Thomas who was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them the first time.  Doubting Thomas remarked:  “Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the nail marks, I will not believe.”

Thomas reminds me of the story of the man caught in the flood.

A man caught in a flood climbed to his rooftop and prayed, placing himself in God’s hands.  A boat came by, and the captain offered to take the man in, but he refused, waiting for God’s intervention.  A helicopter hovered overhead, ready to drop a lifeline, but again the man refused.  Eventually he was swept away and drowned.  When he met God in eternity, he demanded to know why God hadn’t saved him.  God replied, “I sent a boat and a helicopter, so what more did you want?”

In the Gospel, Thomas symbolizes those who are ready to believe in the resurrection, but on their own terms.  When the other disciples told Thomas:  “We have seen the Lord.”  He scoffs and says that he will not believe without touching the wounds of Jesus. 

Thomas, “the twin,” has many brothers and sisters in today’s Church.  Most of us are doubters at some point in life.   When I’m out of sync in a significant relationship in my life, I can be out of sync in my relationship with the Lord.  Resurrection faith is crucial, but often we want to believe on our own terms.  Like the man caught in the flood, sometimes we don’t recognize how God reaches out to us in the circumstances of our life.  What is it within us that demands that we dictate how the Risen Lord appears to us.  We all are the victims of our limited experiences of life and the journey of faith.  We need to be to be surprised by God who sometimes appears to us in strange quarters.

In the days, weeks, months and years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the small community of believers he had first gathered to himself began to grow – exponentially!  What had begun as a few dozen disciples grew into a very formidable movement.  How can one account for the growth and development of the early church?   It was the presence of the Spirit empowering the earliest Christians to preach the powerful message of good example, authentic commitment and a life-transforming faith.

The mystery of the presence of the Risen Christ in our midst is foundational for our life as a parish community.  This is what it means to be an Easter people.

In the Gospel, the great gift that was given the apostle Thomas was that Jesus met him on his own terms and invited Thomas to “Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.”  Jesus invited Thomas to move beyond his skepticism to a life of faith.  Thomas responded:  “My Lord and My God.”

Jesus invites us as well to know Him and to grow in relationship by accepting the power of the Spirit.  The Risen Lord never gives up on us as He never gave up on Thomas.  The Lord encounters us in the circumstances of our life.  We seek to live a new life trusting in the Spirit of the Risen Lord.

We can easily look back on the good old days of our parish when the pews were more filled than they are now and wonder what happen?  We can wonder when happened to our world as it is characterized by much too much violence and war?

We know from the first Scripture reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, that everything Jesus did the apostles did – forgave, preached, taught, healed, added members to the fellow-believers.  Today we are that same Church.  In the name of Jesus  too are to forgive, preach, teach, heal, and add members to the Christian community.

Jesus breathes on us as He breathed on the first disciples and says:  “Peace be with you…Receive the Holy Spirit.”  As we trust in the power of the Spirit in our lives, we indeed will be a people who forgive, teach, heal, and add new members to our parish community.