Sunday Meditation: Divine Mercy Sunday

Easter has passed and we like the apostles are dazed with the events of the past week.  Jesus has died, and some have seen the Risen Man.  But we hide in fear and doubt.  Until suddenly He appears with the word of Peace. 

We are now in the Easter season, and we come to the Second Sunday of Easter, the first being Easter itself.  The reading is the same for all three years of the lectionary.  We are asked to believe.

 

On the evening of that first day of the week,

when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,

for fear of the Jews,

Jesus came and stood in their midst

and said to them, "Peace be with you."

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,

"Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,

and whose sins you retain are retained."

 

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,

was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."

But he said to them,

"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands

and put my finger into the nailmarks

and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

 

Now a week later his disciples were again inside

and Thomas was with them.

Jesus came, although the doors were locked,

and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."

Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands,

and bring your hand and put it into my side,

and do not be unbelieving, but believe."

Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

 

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.

~Jn 20:19-31

In the year 2000, the Second Sunday of Easter has been observed as the Feast of Divine Mercy, authorized by Pope John Paul II, who had a devotion to St. Maria Faustina.  Fr. Joseph Mary of the Capuchins Franciscan gives a wonderful homily, capturing the fear and message of peace of the day.

 

I bet no one in the whole world has used Orwell's 1984 as part of a Divine Mercy Sunday homily.  Well done!  And that is the connection to “Peace” or “Shalom,” or as Father explains, “Wholeness.”  Christ brings wholeness to a fragmented world.

Sunday Meditation: "Peace be with you."

Finally, I embedded Annie Karto’s “Divine Mercy Flood My Soul” some 11 years ago for Divine Mercy Sunday.  I love it so I will post it again, only a different video with the lyrics.