EASTER II [C] (DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY)

(Acts 5:12-16; Rev 1:9-11a,12-13,17-19; Jn 20:19-31)

This Sunday we celebrate the gift of divine mercy. John wants to remind us that God so loved the world that he gave us his only son. Jesus died for us. And his wounds are his identity card. They shout out to us that God’s mercy is more powerful than death.   As soon as Jesus walks into the room where the disciples were, he shows them his hands and his side. He shows them the wounds of his crucifixion. All this is tied in with the special feast we’re celebrating today on Divine Mercy. Mercy is when’s God love meets our brokenness. As Pope Francis, paraphrasing Pope Benedict XVI, once said, “The name of God is mercy.”

And the wounds of Christ, visible for all eternity, are the vivid reminder of God’s mercy. It’s not enough to know abstractly that the name of God is mercy. We need to see it. We need to be reminded of it. So we can say that the mercy of God comes to us through Christ’s wounds. Our Lord’s mercy is the key to liberation from our sins. Where do we see this mercy revealed in today's Readings?

First of all, we see it in the reaction Christ shows to those men, his chosen Apostles, who had abandoned him just two nights before. They had abandoned Jesus in his most difficult hour, but Jesus wasn't going to abandon them. He passes through the locked doors, passes through their fears, regret, and guilt, and appears to them. He hasn't given up on them. He brings them his peace. And he reaffirms his confidence in them by reaffirming their mission: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Our Lord empowers his Apostles to be instruments of his mercy.

And then, just to make sure that the Church is fully armed to communicate this message, Jesus gives the ultimate revelation of God's mercy - he delegates to his Apostles his divine power to forgive sins: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."  This is the explicit institution of the sacrament of confession, the sacrament in which the limitless ocean of God's mercy is showered on the sinners. But this mercy of God has to be received and accepted in our lives. When God gives if we don’t take it, it is of no use.

In order to receive mercy we must ask for it and be ready to accept it. In 1829 George Wilson was condemned to death for robbing the mail and killing the policeman who was on the way to arrest him. President Andrew Jackson granted him a pardon but George Wilson refused to accept it. The judge said ‘Pardon is a pardon only when one accepts it. George must die’. Mercy is mercy when we accept it. We read in the life of Voltaire that he wanted to live six weeks to repent for his sins. The doctor told him he would not live six days. He died unrepentant. Having mercy at his door he refused to accept it.

Let us accept God’s invitation to celebrate and practice mercy. One way the Church celebrates God’s mercy throughout the year is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Finding time for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is another good way to receive Divine Mercy. The Gospel command, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” demands that we show mercy to our fellow human beings always and everywhere. We radiate God’s mercy to others by our actions, our words, and our prayers. It is mainly through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy that we practice mercy in our daily lives and become eligible for God’s merciful judgment.

It’s easy to forget sometimes that mercy is not something to which we have a right. The Lord has freely given it to us.

The Emperor Napoleon was moved by a mother’s plea for pardon for her soldier son. However, the Emperor said that since it was the man’s second major offence, justice demanded death. “I do not ask for justice,” implored the mother, “I plead for mercy.” “But,” said the Emperor, “he does not deserve mercy.” “Sir,” cried the mother, “it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for.” The compassion and clarity of the mother’s logic prompted Napoleon to respond, “Well, then, I will have mercy.”

The Gospel text also reminds us that the clearest way of expressing our belief in the presence of the Risen Jesus among us is through our own forgiveness of others.  We can’t form a lasting Christian community without such forgiveness.  Unless we forgive others, we ourselves will not be forgiven and our celebration of the Eucharist is just an exercise in liturgical rubrics.

Let’s pray that God grant us a forgiving attitude to show mercy and forgiveness to others so that we ourselves become recipients of God’s own mercy in our lives.