On Divine Mercy Sunday, first and foremost, Jesus is the face of the Father's Divine Mercy. In the Gospel, Jesus shares with Thomas the merciful love of God.

St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish sister, reported visions and visitations from Jesus and conversations with Him.  Jesus asked her to paint the vision of His Merciful Divinity being poured from His sacred heart and specifically for a feast of Divine Mercy to be established on the First Sunday after Easter.  St John Paul II declared the Second Sunday of Easter to be Divine Mercy Sunday on April 11, 2000.

First and foremost, Jesus is the face of the Father’s Divine Mercy.  Today is the Day of Mercy -- Divine Mercy.  In the Gospel, Thomas is the recipient of the merciful love of Jesus.  Thomas then proclaims the beautiful statement of faith – “My Lord and my God.”  Indeed Thomas was invited by the Lord Himself to encounter the merciful love of God. 

I invite you to consider the faith journey of the apostle Thomas on this Divine Mercy Sunday.  The popular interpretation of Thomas is that he is ‘doubting Thomas’ -- seen in a bit of a negative light.  I invite you to revisit this Easter gospel and see Thomas as a model of faith.  Why?  He was the gracious recipient of God’s Divine Mercy.

When you think about this?  Thomas was right to insist before he could believe in Jesus’ resurrection, he must see the holes the nails made in his hands, put his finger into the holes and his hand into the great wound made by the centurion’s lance.  I suggest Thomas is teaching the important lesson that we must not separate the resurrection from the cross.  We are the disciples of the crucified as well as the risen Lord. 

We cannot live the life of grace, the risen life, authentically unless we bear in our bodies the wounds of the cross.  This means being conscious that we develop the capacity to love and be loved only by dying to ourselves.  Our wounds are also a constant reminder of our frailty, and that it is God’s grace that raises us up to new life.

Thank you Thomas for bringing honesty into our faith, for helping to acknowledge at times that there are areas in our life that Jesus is not yet Lord.  Thomas didn’t pretend that he was better than he was. He began by wanting proof and ended by being glad of faith.  He is the patron saint of transitions and steps in faith.  Faith is a journey.  He is the saint of faith in our times. 

Lord, we also thank you for friends, leaders and spiritual guides who challenge us as Jesus challenged Thomas.  But may we like Thomas know that we need to see the scars and the wounds for us also to believe in resurrection and new life.  Thomas professes the true faith of the Church.  We too must insist that the Jesus we follow is the true Jesus, the one whose risen body bears the wounds of Calvary.

The community was the place Thomas found faith, having lost it when he tried to go it alone.  Then he came back to the community of faith and went on a journey of life that took him to martyrdom in India.  The journey of faith of each one of us is unique.  But it is the plan of Jesus that we are better together as a parish community rather than as isolated individuals.  This was the experience of the apostle Thomas, and I suggest that in this community may you experience again the merciful love of Jesus in the love we have for each other as a parish community.

The faith journey of Thomas illustrates so beautifully the need of each one to us to grow in our journey of faith in the mist of community, in the midst of the parish community of the Church of the Holy Spirit.  We are better together.  The Easter gift given to us the Risen Lord is gift of new life and we are missioned to be life-giving for others.

On Divine Mercy Sunday, we pray the Divine Mercy chaplet celebrating God’s merciful love; we celebrate this Sacrament of the Eucharist as the supreme example of God’s Divine Mercy given to us.  We also receive and value the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  We are a people missioned to be Forgiven and Forgiving.  God’s Divine Mercy shares the gift of peace and forgiveness with us, and we are missioned to share the gift of forgiveness with one and all.

The Bible describes mercy as a gift of God, a gift that is to be given to those who need it.  Celebrating the abiding faithfulness of God, we the Church of the Holy Spirit are to circulate mercy, to pay it forward irrespective of deservedness, inviting one and all to experience the merciful love of Jesus.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, it is worth reflecting and pausing to see if there is a side of us that is a doubting Thomas and there is a side of us that is the believing Thomas.  Each one of us is unique.  This is not by accident.  It is by God’s design.   Jesus is pleased to give Thomas the assurance he is looking for, and then challenges him to look forward to the day when he will believe without seeing – always in the Jesus who passes through death to resurrection.

Jesus on this Divine Mercy Sunday is pleased to give what you are looking for in your journey of faith.  Jesus does not want His Body, the Church, to remain in the tomb but always raise her up to new life.  Each of us is not to remain in the tomb of our doubts, of our fears, of our anxieties.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, may live in a state of thanksgiving for God’s redemptive mercy that is shared with each and every one of us.  And may the Gospel we proclaim help us to recognize that scars are the pathway to our sharing in the Risen life of Christ.  This was the journey of the apostle Thomas.  It is the journey for each one of us.

Have a blessed day.