I’ve found that the journey
through Holy Week beginning with the mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday, and
ending with the Easter Vigil on Saturday can be a real Topsy Turvey ride. As we
engage ourselves in reliving these Easter events, many emotions are aroused and
we can get bounced around a bit. On Holy Thursday, we confidently embrace Jesus’
model for service to others through the washing of feet and the last supper. And
then on Good Friday, we relive the cruelty of the rejection, torture and death
of Jesus on the cross to finally to move into the hope, joy and celebration the
resurrection event at the Easter Vigil and on Easter morning. If you think this is an emotional roller
coaster for us who are just replaying these events, imagine what it must have
been like to those who experienced them in real time. One thing that I became
more aware of this year is that when we dramatize these Easter events, we have
the advantage of knowing the eventual outcome. Those who experienced them in real time did
not have that advantage. In fact, for
those followers who were closest to Jesus, it would probably be difficult to
capture in words the trauma they experienced by these events. Our Gospel reading today starts with these
very people doing what we ourselves would do when faced with a disaster of such
overwhelming proportions. They were huddling together, fearful of the
perpetrators, sharing their grief and loss, and carrying the shame of wondering
if they might not have done something more to prevent this tragedy. Without the
appearances of the resurrected Christ that followed, it is unlikely that the Christian
story, as we know it, would ever have happened as we understand it today.
In today’s gospel, we hear
that Thomas was not present when these appearances began. We don’t know where
he was, but it took some persuasion from the others before he would even meet
with them. But it is obvious, if he did not go with them to experience
the risen Christ himself, he would probably have continued live in doubt since there would be no wounds of Jesus for
him to see. There would be no profession of his changed faith: “My Lord and My
God”. But he did go, and he saw and believed and it changed his life. Because of his encounter with the Lord, he accepted
Jesus’ great commission of spreading the Gospel to many places of the world
including to the Parthians, Medes and Persians, and to be eventually martyred in
India for doing so. Without the appearances, Peter and Andrew would probably have
return to fishing, and James and John to their father Zebedee to take on what
they had left behind some three years before. But the appearances of Jesus
changed all that. With His appearances, they were all changed. Three of the four I mentioned were eventually
martyred for the cause of the Gospel; Andrew in Greece, Peter in Rome, James in
Jerusalem. John the evangelist, would be imprisoned on the Island of Patmos. For them and for the other witnesses to Jesus’
resurrection, their for their own selves were suddenly less important than sharing
the Gospel of Christ which they did through their preaching and through their
writings.
So with these appearances of the
resurrected Christ, lives were changed, in fact the world was changed, and these
events continued to influence the lives of people and societies throughout the
centuries more than any other single event in human history. Today, we are a part of that chain of events.
In the year 2000, Pope John Paul 11 designated this second Sunday of Easter as
Divine Mercy Sunday. He decided that
immediately after Easter, when the Paschal mysteries were still fresh in peoples
minds and hearts, it was a good opportunity for the church to reflect more
deeply on God’s mercy manifested in the Resurrection of Jesus. He noted that the resurrection of Jesus is
the core of our faith. As we read in 1 Corinthians, without the resurrection of
Jesus, there is no Christianity. So Pope
John Paul reinforces for the church that connection of God’s Divine Mercy with
the transformational gift of Christ’s death and resurrection. They are one in
the same.
So what is Divine Mercy? The ordinary definition of mercy is the
compassionate treatment of those in distress, especially when it’s within our power
to punish or to harm. If someone has wronged us, and we are in a position to
punish them for it, then to forgive is to show mercy. It is not as common in
today’s world where suing or seeking retribution is looked upon as a sign of
strength. From the biblical sense, Divine
Mercy, derived from the Latin ‘merced’ means “the price been paid”. So
it relates directly to forgiveness, as Jesus continually taught in the Gospels.
If we each take the time to reflect upon
this as Pope John Paul intended, we can
easily come up with many of our own personal stories of a time or situation where
God extended his hand mercy to us. We all fall short of the glory of God. We
all miss the mark. If God has extended mercy to us for our indiscretions, then
we are called also to extend that same mercy to others.
It is important to know that the
reason why God extends His Divine mercy to us, and asks us to do likewise, is not
because He feels sorry for us, or has pity on us. It is because he wants to heal us, to transform
us, to change us into the person that He intended for us to be in the first
place. So change or transformation becomes the purpose. This transformation
process is so evident in the relationship that existed between Jesus and the
apostles. He connects with this rather rag tag group of people, invites them
into a relationship, guides them, teaches them, heals them, sends them out. He
never gives up on them. And you can be
sure, that He never gives up on us as well.
And even though they were a little slow off the mark at times, as we are
often ourselves, Jesus teaches them that Kingdom of God cannot be found through
a life of our own self rule, doing what only benefits ourselves, but by dying
to ourselves through actions of love and service and mercy to others. Jesus not
only teaches this to the apostles, but lived it out completely in His own life as
witnessed by the unfolding events of Easter.
He does this by his own denial of self, and by his death and
resurrection, paying the price for us. And then, appearing to the apostles, and
sending His Holy Spirit so that we may be impowered to live that out in our lives as well.
So our transformation and
God’s Divine Mercy found through forgiveness, are linked and inseparatable. In
our first reading from Acts, we witness the fruits of this played out in the
life of the infant Christian community: “The faithful devoted themselves to
the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and prayers.
Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done. All who
believed were united together, and had all things in common.”
I would like to conclude with a
quote from St. Mother Teresa on her own wisdom about God’s action of Divine
Mercy. It’s a little different. Perhaps, more of a call, of how to respond to
difficult situations in our own life in Christian community. She says:
People may often seem unreasonable
and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Giving the world the best you have, may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you
and them anyway.
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