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Acts 2:42-47, I Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

Divine Mercy in action: A TIME magazine issue in 1984 presented a startling cover. It pictured a prison cell where two men sat on metal folding chairs. The young man wore a black turtleneck sweater, blue jeans and white running shoes. The older man was dressed in a white robe and had a white skullcap on his head. They sat facing one another, up-close and personal. They spoke quietly so as to keep others from hearing the conversation. The young man was Mehmet Ali Agca, the pope’s would-be assassin (he shot and wounded the Pope on May 13, 1981); the other man was Pope St. John Paul II, the intended victim. The Pope embraced his enemy and pardoned him. When the Pope left the cell, he said, “What we talked about must remain a secret between us. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.” This is an example of God’s Divine Mercy, the same Divine Mercy whose message St. Faustina witnessed. St. Faustina of Poland is the well-known apostle of Divine Mercy.  On the 30th of April 2000, at 10:00 AM on the Second Sunday of Easter His Holiness Pope St. John Paul II celebrated the Eucharist in Saint Peter’s Square and proceeded to the canonization of Blessed Sister Faustina. “The Lord of Divine Mercy,” a drawing of Jesus based on the vision given to St. Faustina, shows Jesus raising his right hand in a gesture of blessing, with his left hand on his heart from which gush forth two rays, one red and one white.  The picture contains the message, "Jesus, I trust in You!" (Jezu ufam Tobie).  The rays streaming out have symbolic meaning: red for the Blood of Jesus, which is the life of souls and white for the water of Baptism which justifies souls.  The whole image is symbolic of the mercy, forgiveness and love of God.

Introduction: The readings for this Sunday are about God’s mercy, the necessity for trusting Faith and the need for God’s forgiveness of sins.  The opening prayer addresses the Father as "God of Mercy."  In the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 118), we repeat several times, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever.”  God revealed His mercy, first and foremost, by sending His only-begotten Son to become our Savior and Lord by His suffering, death and Resurrection.  Divine Mercy is given to us also in each celebration of the Sacraments. 

The first reading (Acts 2:42-47) shows us how the early Church grew every day because of the acts of mercy and sharing, sacrificial, agápe love practiced by the early Christians. They expressed their love and mercy by sharing what they had with everyone in need. Some of them even sold their property and entrusted the money to the Church so that the poor might be helped and supported. We are told that they got the inspiration and good will for the practice of love and mercy because of their sense of being one believing community. They were strengthened by their punctual and active participation in the “Breaking of the Bread”– the Eucharistic Liturgy.  They became single-minded and merciful because of what they learned from the apostles and because of their fellowship and prayer life.

In the second reading (1 Peter 1:3-9), St. Peter glorifies God, the Father of Jesus Christ, for showing us His mercy by granting to His Son, Jesus, Resurrection from the dead and glorious Ascension into Heaven. Jesus’ Resurrection, in turn, gives us a guarantee for our own resurrection and entry into Heaven and “imperishable and unfading" Heavenly bliss. St. Peter encourages the early Christians by assuring them that their sufferings under the Roman emperor, the Jewish authorities and their own pagan family members will be amply compensated by the Heavenly reward waiting for them.

Gospel exegesis: The first part of today’s Gospel (verses 19-23), describes how Jesus entrusted to the apostles His mission of preaching the “Good News” of God’s love, mercy, forgiveness and salvation.  This portion of the reading teaches us that Jesus uses the Church as the earthly means of continuing His mission.  It also teaches us that the Church needs Jesus as its source of power and authority, and that it becomes Christ’s true messenger only when it perfectly loves and obeys Him.  The risen Lord gives the apostles the authority to forgive sins in His Name.  He gives the apostles the power of imparting God’s mercy to the sinner through the gift of forgiving sins from God’s treasury of mercy.   In the liturgy, the Church has proclaimed the mercy of God for centuries through the Word of God and the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.  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, our celebration of the Eucharist is just an exercise of liturgical rubrics.

The second part of the Gospel (verses 24-29), presents the fearless apostle St. Thomas in his uncompromising honesty, demanding a personal vision of, and physical contact with, the risen Jesus as a condition for his belief.  Thomas had not been with the Apostles when Jesus first appeared to them.  As a result, he refused to believe.  This should serve as a warning to us.  It is difficult for us to believe when we do not strengthen ourselves with the fellowship of other believers.  When the Lord appeared to Thomas later, He said: “Blessed are those who have not seen but have believed.”  Thomas was able to overcome his doubts by seeing the risen Jesus.  Modern Christians, who are no longer able to "see" Jesus with their eyes, must believe what they hear.  That is why Paul reminds us that "Faith comes from hearing" (Rom 10:17). 

The unique profession of Faith: Thomas, the “doubting" apostle, makes the great profession of Faith: “My Lord and my God.”  Here, the most outrageous doubter of the Resurrection of Jesus utters the greatest confession of belief in the Lord Who rose from the dead.  This declaration by the “doubting" Thomas in today’s Gospel is very significant for two reasons.  1) It is the foundation of our Christian Faith.  Our Faith is based on the Divinity of Jesus as proved by His miracles, especially by the supreme miracle of His Resurrection from the dead.  Thomas’ profession of Faith is the strongest evidence we have of the Resurrection of Jesus.  2) Thomas’ faith culminated in his self-surrender to Jesus, his heroic missionary expedition to India in A.D. 52, his fearless preaching, and the powerful testimony given by his martyrdom in A.D. 72.  

Life messages: 1) 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.

2)  Let us ask God for the Faith that culminates in self-surrender to Him and leads us to serve those we encounter with love.   Living Faith enables us to see the risen Lord in everyone and gives us the willingness to render to each one our loving service (“Faith without good works is dead” James 2:17).  It was this Faith in the Lord and obedience to His missionary command that prompted St. Thomas to travel to India to preach the Gospel among the Hindus, to establish seven Christian communities (known later as “St. Thomas Christians”), and eventually to suffer martyrdom.  The Fathers of the Church prescribe the following traditional means to grow in the living and dynamic Faith of St. Thomas the Apostle.  a) We must come to know Jesus personally and intimately by our daily and meditative reading of the Bible.  b) We must strengthen our Faith by the power of the Holy Spirit through our personal and communal prayer.  c) We must share in the Divine life of Jesus by frequenting the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist.  St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) presents it this way: “If we pray, we will believe; if we believe, we will love; if we love, we will serve. Only then we put our love of God into action.”  

3) We need to meet the challenge for a transparent Christian life -- "I will not believe unless I see."   This "seeing" is what others demand of us.  They ask that we reflect Jesus, the risen Lord, in our lives by our selfless love, unconditional forgiveness and humble service.  The integrity of our lives bears a fundamental witness to others who want to see the risen Lord alive and active, working in us.  Christ’s mercy shines forth from us whenever we reach out to the poor, the needy and the marginalized, as St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) did.  His mercy shines forth as we remain open to those who struggle in Faith, as did the Apostle Thomas in today’s Gospel.  We should be able to appreciate the presence of Jesus, crucified and raised, in our own suffering and in our suffering brothers and sisters, thus recognizing the glorified wounds of the risen Lord in the suffering of others.  

4) Like St. Thomas, let us use our skepticism to help us grow in Faith.  It is our genuine doubts about the doctrines of our religion that encourage us to study these doctrines more closely and thus to grow in our Faith.  This will naturally lead us to a personal encounter with Jesus through our prayer, study of the Word of God, and frequenting of the Sacraments.  However, we must never forget the fact that our Faith is not our own doing, but is a gift from God.  Hence, we need to augment our Faith every day by prayer so that we may join St. Thomas in his proclamation: “My Lord and my God." 

5) Let us have the courage of our Christian convictions to share our Faith as St. Thomas did and to recognize the “nail marks.”  We are not to keep the gift of faith locked in our hearts, but to share it with our children, our families and our neighbors, always remembering the words of Pope St. John XXIII: “Every believer in this world must become a spark of Christ’s light.” “We all have scars from our own Good Fridays that remain long after our own experiences of resurrection.  Our ‘nail marks’ remind us that all pain and grief, all ridicule and suffering are transformed into healing and peace in the love of God we experience from others and that we extend to them. The ‘nail marks’ of Jesus are all around us in the lives of those walking their own Calvarys.  Jesus calls us to be willing to place ourselves in the pain and struggle of others and bring the joy and peace of Easter into hearts entombed in winter cold and darkness.” (Fr. Anthony Kadavil)

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, celebrated his 90th birthday on Monday in the garden of his residence in the Vatican, Mater Ecclesiae.

On a sunny Roman day he drank a mug of beer and listened to traditional Bavarian music in the company of visitors from his native Bavaria in Germany, including the region's Prime Minister.

His brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, also attended the party.

The Pope Emeritus was born on April 16, 1927, in southern Germany. But since the birthday coincided this year with Easter Sunday, Benedict celebrated the milestone event on Monday. 

He resigned from office in 2013.

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Vatican City, Apr 18, 2017 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Sunday thanked Assisi's bishop for creating a shrine dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi's divestiture, when he renounced his family's wealth, embracing poverty as he stripped himself of his fine clothes.

Recalling his October 2013 to Assisi and the Room of Renunciation in the archbishop's residence,  the Pope said that “in that room were so many eloquent testimonies to the scandalous reality of a world still so marked by the gap between an immense number of indigents, often deprived of basic necessities, and the miniscule portion of the rich who hold the greatest part of wealth and who think they can determine the destiny of humanity.”

Pope Francis' Oct. 16 letter to Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino commended him for his decision to establish a shrine to St. Francis' renunciation, which will be inaugurated May 20. It will be in Santa Maria Maggiore, the city's original cathedral, and include access to the Room of Renunciation in the archbishop's residence.

In his renunciation, St. Francis “stripped himself, to the point of nudity, of all earthly goods, to give himself entirely to God and to the brethren,” the Pope recalled. “Renouncing all earthly goods, he unchained himself from the enchantment of the god-money which had ensnared his family.”

“Certainly the young convert did not intend to disrespect his father, but he remembered that one who is baptized must put love for Christ above all other affections,” Pope Francis wrote.

“Unfortunately, 2,000 years after the announcement of the gospel and eight centuries from the testimony of Francis, we face a phenomenon of 'global inequality' and an 'economy that kills'.”

He said, “the new Assisiani sanctuary was born as a prophecy of a society more just and in solidarity, and reminds the Church of its duty to live, in the footsteps of Francis, stripping itself of worldliness and investing itself with the values of the Gospel.”

For Pope Francis “today it is more necessary than ever that the words of Christ characterize the way and the style of the Church. If in so many traditionally Christian regions of the world there is a shift away from the faith, and we are therefore called to a new evangelization, the secret of our preaching is not so much in the force of our words, but in the charm of our testimony, sustained by grace.”

Recalling that St. Francis was told by Christ to repair his house, and that the Church is always in need of such repair  – for “it is holy in the gifts it receives from above, but is formed by sinners, and therefore is always in need of penitence and renewal” – Pope Francis asked, “how can it renew itself, if not by looking to its 'naked' Lord?”

“Christ is the original model of 'renunciation',” he said. “In the Child of Bethlehem the divine glory is concealed, as it were. It will be even more veiled on Golgotha.”

“From Christmas to Easter, the way of Christ is entirely a mystery of 'renunciation'. Omnipotence, in some way, is eclipsed, so that the glory of the Word made flesh is expressed above all in love and in mercy. Renunciation is a mystery of love! It does not mean disdain for the realities of the world. And how could it? The world is entirely from the hands of God … The renunciation teaches us to make use of them in a way marked by sobriety and solidarity, within a hierarchy of values which give to love the first place. One has to renounce, in substance, not so much things in themselves, but rather the egoism which encases us in our interests and our own goods, which prevents us from discovering the beauty of the other and the joy opening our heart.”

The Pope said that “an authentic Christian path leads not to sadness, but to joy. In a world marked by so much 'individualistic sadness', the Sanctuary of the Renunciation is meant to nourish in the Church and in society evangelical joy, simplicity, and solidarity.”

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