The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, April 07, 2024, as the second Sunday of Easter, Year B. It is Divine Mercy Sunday in which we are encouraged to offer forgiveness and reconciliation to all. It is based on the visions recorded by Saint Faustina Kowalski, a Polish nun. In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II decreed it a solemnity, a high feast day. May we, on this day, learn to offer love, forgiveness, and reconciliation to all our brothers and sisters, even those who do not care about us.
In the first reading, Saint Luke relates in Acts of the Apostles the witness of the early Church as directed by the Holy Spirit. Through the great witnesses, Peter and Paul, the word goes from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. In the second reading, First John tells us that faith is the victory over the power of darkness. The water and blood from the cross flow through the Spirit into the hearts of all men and women of faith, giving them a share in Jesus through baptism and the holy Eucharist. In John’s Gospel, we see Jesus breathing the Spirit onto his disciples and giving them strength and courage for their new divine mission, that of taking Christ’s word to the ends of the earth. The doubting Thomas brings the Gospel to its most explicit profession of faith in the Risen Lord when he says: “My Lord and my God.” That is what Jesus is for successive generations of Christians, expressed with the solemnity that describes the one true God in the Old Testament. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to believe that our Lord is truly risen and is alive. Alleluia.
First Reading: Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35.
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Comment
As I said last Sunday, and it is worth repeating, the Acts of the Apostles is the fifth Book of the New Testament, written between 70 and 90 AD by the author of the Gospel according to Luke. Acts is an account of the early preaching about Jesus Christ, the growth of the early Christian community, and the spread of the Christian message. It covers the period from the Ascension of Christ and the Pentecost, to the visit of Saint Paul to Rome, where he was placed under house arrest.
The early chapters of Acts draw a beautiful picture of the Christian community of Jerusalem as they pray together, practice common ownership of property, and preach together. The author attributes the vitality and activity of Christianity to the Holy Spirit, which plays a prominent part in Acts. Three of the key ideas that run throughout Acts are that Christ fulfills the promises made in the Old Testament, that salvation comes through him, and that the Christian community is the new chosen people.
The very composition of Acts focuses attention on the present, and on spreading Christianity “to the ends of the earth”. Thus, Acts is a fairly detailed account of early Christianity in its progress from Jerusalem to Rome.
Through such great witnesses of faith as Peter and Paul, the word goes out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. The apostles as chosen witnesses of Christ’s resurrection boldly continue the proclamation of his word. Saint Luke underscores the unity of the Christian community as seen especially in the sharing of possessions.
The first Christian community, which is presided over by Peter and the other apostles, constitutes the Church, the entire Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of God on earth was only beginning and was all contained in Jerusalem. “The Church of Christ,” the Fathers of Vatican II Council tell us, “is really present in all legitimately organized local groups of the faithful, which, insofar as they are united to their pastors, are also quite appropriately called churches in the New Testament. In them, the faithful are gathered together through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the mystery of the Lord’s Supper is celebrated” (Lumen gentium, 26).
The passage of our meditation stresses the importance of “being one”, that is, solidarity and unity are virtues of good Christians and one of the marks of the Church. The Apostles bore witness to the resurrection not only in words but also by their virtue. They were joyful and self-sacrificing, putting all their belonging at the disposal of the community. Harmony and mutual understanding among the disciples reflect the internal and external unity of the Church itself, which derives its life from the Holy Spirit, which is the source of the nourishment of the life of the Church.
Let us together say this prayer for the Catholic Church, which William Laud left to us: Gracious Father, we pray to you for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with your truth. Keep it in your peace. Where it is corrupt, reform it. Where it is in error, correct it. Where it is right, defend it. Where it is in want, provide for it. Where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Alleluia.
Second Reading: First John 5:1-6.
Beloved: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth.
Comment
There are seven New Testament letters that were not written by Paul; three of them are attributed to John, two to Peter and one each to James and Jude. John’s First letter, from where the passage for our meditation comes, is the most important of the three letters attributed to John, the evangelist, the Beloved Apostle, the one Jesus loved, brother of James, and son of Zebedee.
This letter was written in the form of an encyclical letter to the Christian communities of Asia, threatened with disintegration under the impact of the early heresies. In this letter, the author summarises the entire content of his religious experience. He successively develops the parallel themes of light, uprightness, love and truth. Taking these themes as a basis, the author shows how we as children of God must necessarily live the life of integrity based on faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and how we must love our neighbor.
Chapter 5 of this letter, from where our reading is taken, summarizes the entire letter, focusing our attention on faith in Jesus Christ and the confidence such faith brings to us. In the opening words, Saint John points to some of the consequences of faith: a child of God is he who believes in Christ and keeps his commandments. Faith in Jesus Christ is of crucial importance because through it every baptized Christian receives a share in Christ’s victory over death. By his death and resurrection, Christ gives to every Christian access to all the graces needed to cope with temptations.
Faith is the victory over the powers of darkness. The blood and water from the cross flow through the Spirit into the hearts of all men and women of faith, giving them a share in Christ through baptism and the Holy Eucharist. In the external sacrament and the internal spirit, Jesus is the Saviour of the world.
Let us pray. You are great and wonderful, Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer. You are the living One, the just and true One. Increase our faith in you, Lord, that we may continue to praise and glorify your name, now and forever. Amen. Alleluia.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord; blessed are they who have not seen, but still believe. Alleluia.”
Gospel: John 20: 19-31.
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then 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." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told 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 in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Comment
How very beautiful are the readings the Church proposes to us during the Easter season as the Gospels continue to relate to us Christ’s appearances after his resurrection! And how very rich they are in lessons that we can take home and muse over throughout the day!
In today’s Gospel, the disciples are gathered in a locked room. The recent violence has made them very security conscious. They have become runaways from a society they fear is hostile, so they lock themselves in what they hope is a safe house. For all their defensiveness, however, they cannot keep out the pressing love of the Risen Lord. Jesus appears to them without any need for the doors to be opened, by using the qualities of his glorified body; but, in order to dispel any impression that he is only a spirit, he shows them his hands and his side: there is no longer any doubt about its being Jesus himself, about his being truly risen from the dead.
He appears to them not only in divine glory but also in human solidarity. He greets them twice using the words of greeting customary among the Jews: “Peace be with you”. These friendly words dispel the fear and the shame the Apostles must have been feeling at behaving so disloyally during his passion when they had abandoned him and fled or had, like Peter, denied him when he needed him most. He now recreates the normal atmosphere of intimacy, and breathes on them the Spirit that will give them powers to continue his mission on earth.
The Spirit that Jesus gives his apostles has been passed on to other people through the ministry of the church. Whenever and wherever the Spirit is present, sin is destroyed. Invested with the Spirit of Jesus, they mediate the word of Jesus to the world; and depending on man’s acceptance and conversion, it will be a word of forgiveness or condemnation.
The Church has always understood and has defined, that by telling his apostles to “receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive are forgiven, and whose sins you retain, are retained,” Jesus Christ conferred the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation on them and their lawful successors: the pope, bishops and priests. The Sacrament of Penance is the most sublime expression of God’s love and mercy towards men and women. The Lord always awaits us with open arms, as the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. He always waits for us to repent and then he forgives us and restores us to the dignity of being his sons and daughters once more.
Let me not conclude this reflection without touching on the actions of Thomas, or Didymus, the Twin, who is absent from Jesus’ first encounter with his disciples. A week later, Thomas makes the most explicit profession of faith in the risen Lord – “My Lord and my God.” To Saint Gregory the Great, Thomas’ absence was no mere accident. “God arranged that it should happen this way. His clemency acted in this wonderful way through the doubting disciple touching the wound in his Master’s body. In this way, our own wounds of unbelief might be healed. And so the disciple, doubting and touching, was changed into a witness of the truth of the resurrection.
Christians use Thomas’ words “My Lord and My God” as an act of faith in the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist. Thomas’ doubting moves our Lord to give him special proof that his risen body is quite real. By so doing, he increases the faith of those who would later take his word to the four corners of the earth.
Let us pray that the Holy Spirit may come down upon us this day and increase our faith in the risen Lord so that we too may come to believe that he and he alone holds the words of eternal life.
Let us pray with Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits): “My Lord and my God, I freely yield all my freedom to you. Take my memory, my intellect and my entire will. You have given me everything I am or have; I give it all back to you to stand under your will alone. Your love and your grace are enough for me; I shall ask for nothing more. I make this prayer through the Risen Christ, our Lord. Amen. Alleluia!”
Comments