Second Sunday of Easter
(Sunday of Divine Mercy)
April 16, 2023
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041623.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we read about the “Golden Years” of Christianity, those early days when Resurrection glory still lay fresh and warm over the nascent Church:
Awe came upon everyone,
Acts 2: 43-47
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
All who believed were together and had all things in common;
they would sell their property and possessions
and divide them among all according to each one’s need.
Every day they devoted themselves
to meeting together in the temple area
and to breaking bread in their homes.
They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart,
praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.
And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Have you had times like that in your life where circumstances merged to make life a little piece of heaven? The right time, the right people, the right work to share? Perhaps the effort was taxing, but the merged joy and enthusiasm carried you through.
We cherish such times when we have them. And we remember their stories with tenderness, laughter and gratitude. This kind of remembering is what Luke, Peter, and John offer in our readings. They invite to experience the “indescribable joy” of our “new birth in Christ“ just as they experienced it.
Of course, we weren’t with the disciples in that first post-Easter glow. We might struggle a little, like absent Thomas did, to enthusiastically believe. He demanded to SEE before he would give his heart over:
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
John 20:24-25
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.”
Jesus was so kind to Thomas, wasn’t he – allowing Thomas not only to see, but to touch his sacred wounds.
Jesus is kind to us too. Through our Baptism, we are invited to see and touch Christ’s wounds in our own time and, like the gloriously joyous disciples, to be healers in God’s name.
In this you rejoice, although now for a little while
you may have to suffer through various trials,
so that the genuineness of your faith …
may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.Although you have not seen him you love him;
1 Peter 1:6-8
even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,
you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Poetry: from “Sounding of the Seasons” by Malcolm Guite
“We do not know… how can we know the way?”
Courageous master of the awkward question,
You spoke the words the others dared not say
And cut through their evasion and abstraction.
Oh doubting Thomas, father of my faith,
You put your finger on the nub of things
We cannot love some disembodied wraith,
But flesh and blood must be our king of kings.
Your teaching is to touch, embrace, anoint,
Feel after Him and find Him in the flesh.
Because He loved your awkward counter-point
The Word has heard and granted you your wish.
Oh place my hands with yours, help me divine
The wounded God whose wounds are healing mine.
Music: Surely God Is With Us – Rich Mullins
Lavish Mercy 