27 April 2025
Acts 4:32-35
Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 Jn 5:1-6
Jn 20:19-31
Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus,
quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius
"Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
His mercy endures forever" (Ps 118:1).
St. John Paul II began his homily for the Second Sunday of Easter on 30 April 2000 with the opening and closing words of Psalm 118. They are words that encourage us to rejoice in God's mercy, a mercy that is never withheld, despite our unfaithfulness.
During that Mass the Holy Father canonized St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish visionary religious sister who wrote of Christ's Divine Mercy in her diary. And he declared that from that day on the Second Sunday of Easter
would be known as Divine Mercy Sunday.
The familiar image of Divine Mercy depicts Jesus clothed in white. with His right hand raised in blessing and His left touching his chest. Rays of red and white emanate from beneath His hand. The rays recall the blood and water
that flowed from Jesus' side when he was pierced by the soldier's lance. They represent the Divine Mercy poured out upon the worldthrough baptism and the Eucharist. Below the image is the signature: "Jesus I trust in You."
“Unless I see the marks . . . . “
Many like to slag Thomas for doubting. But doing so misses a deep narrative thread in today’s gospel. The story of Thomas is not about doubt, but about faith, faith that, like ours, was tested. Thomas’ faith emerged victorious from that test.
Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Indifference or not caring is faith’s opposite.
Faith and doubt are sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other. Faith must always contend with doubt if it is to grow. Faith does not mature or come to fullness without periodic struggles with doubt, struggles during which we wonder about deeper meaning.
Thomas, who was not present when Jesus first appeared after his Resurrection, is a model for us today. Thomas' love for Jesus did not die on the cross. Thomas continued to love Jesus with the same kind of love we hold for a dead parent or friend, a love that may keep us off-balance for a long time. In his sorrow he found it difficult to believe the message of the other apostles that they had seen Him. His faith was tested. And then we hear his faith-filled gasp when Jesus appeared: “My Lord and my God!”
In his Letter to the Romans Paul reminds us that, “Faith comes from what is heard and what is heard comes by the preaching of Jesus Christ.” That preaching does not come to us only in oral form as it did at the Sermon on the Mount or in Jesus' many parables. Jesus' preaching comes to us in scripture, in the tradition of the Church, and, most especially, in the reception of the Eucharist.
Over the coming weeks we will hear of the beginnings of the Church. Those early communities had the task of defining what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
In today's reading from Acts we hear of communal mercy that fulfilled the needs of those who otherwise would have gone without. That mercy is a reflection of the Divine Mercy bestowed on us today. We will hear more in the coming weeks.
At the end of their encounter, Jesus asked Thomas a question and bestowed a blessing,
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
We too must answer that question.
The last sentence of this reading puts the Gospels into perspective: “Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in His name.”
The gospels are not albums of verbal snapshots from Jesus' life. They are not log books tracing Jesus' daily movements. There is no Captain Kirk-like "Star Date". The gospels are not diaries of Jesus’ day-to-day thoughts and movements. They are not history in the modern understanding of the word. We can never interpret the gospels solely through the lenses of journalism, anthropology, or science without frustration and the risk of faithlessness.
The Gospels proclaims one essential truth, that Jesus of Nazareth, of whom it speaks, is the Lord. Thus, the fullness of Easter joy is contained in Thomas’ faith-filled, startled, and ultimately joyous proclamation. That is why we too
can gaze upon the True Body and Blood of Christ, from which flows the Divine Mercy, and say with Thomas and all the Church,“My Lord and My God.”
Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus,
quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia
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The photos are from the Divine Mercy celebration in Ljubljana, Slovnia in 2017 when I was living at the church. The liturgy, without Mass, went on for three hours with rosary, adoration, procession, and long lines at the confessional.
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| From underneath and behind the altar |
Fr. Jack, SJ, MD
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