April 16, 2023 Divine Mercy Sunday

2nd Sunday of Easter (A)

Recipients of Mercy—Impart Mercy

Msgr Thomas Gervasio

Consider the mood that pervaded the Upper Room where today’s Gospel transports us. It is the evening of Easter Sunday and the apostles are locked behind closed doors; closed in on themselves as well, burdened by their guilt and sense of failure. Having abandoned the Lord, they are filled with a sense of foreboding, grief, despair, and fear.

Into this emotionally charged environment, the Risen Lord appears. But he speaks no words of reprimand. He says rather, “Peace be with you!” Shame gives way to joy. Guilt gives way to peace, because seeing Jesus and hearing his greeting the apostles shifted their focus from themselves to Jesus. Our Lord’s gaze,” says Pope Francis, “brimmed not with severity but with mercy and this filled their hearts with the peace they had lost and made them new persons, purified by a forgiveness that is utterly unmerited.”(Sun. Easter II, 2022)

To this act of divine mercy, Jesus adds a divine mission. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” he says and then confers the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles to make them agents of reconciliation: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. (v.22-23) The apostles not only receive mercy but are to dispense mercy. This is a ministry that priests carry out today in the Sacrament of Penance, not on account of their merits, but as a pure gift of grace. The priest as confessor is not so much the holder of some power, as he is a channel of mercy, who imparts the pardon that he himself has received.

Thomas was not present at this first appearance of the Risen Lord. His whereabouts are not mentioned. Was he the bravest apostle—the first to leave the security of the Upper Room? Was he drafted to venture out to obtain basic necessities at Jerusalem’s Shop Rite?” Perhaps the other apostles said, “Send Thomas—if he doesn’t return, it’s no great loss!”

Whatever the case, Thomas does return. But when the apostles tell him of the Lord’s appearance, he doubts what they say. History knows him as the “Doubting Thomas.” But Our Lord did not forget Thomas or close his heart to him.

Appearing a week later, he says again, “Peace be with you” and immediately turns his attention to the doubter, not to reprimand but to strengthen and draw him ever closer. He is not harsh but merciful. Deeply moved, Thomas makes the simplest and finest act of faith, “My Lord and my God.” Doubt turns to faith. Thomas too was restored and granted a new life, a new beginning.

Think about it! The first gift the Lord bestows after his Resurrection is the Sacrament of Penance, the gift of mercy. We do not baptize or confirm ourselves, we do not ordain, or anoint ourselves. Nor do we absolve ourselves. The Lord appoints ministers of reconciliation to whom we go—Ministers who are themselves “wounded healers.” They are able to say “I forgive because I have been forgiven. I can speak of God’s mercy because I have experienced his mercy.

This is the great message of Divine Mercy Sunday. Going to Confession is not always easy. It takes CCC—Candor, Courage, and Contrition. But today we are powerfully reminded that the Lord responds to our CCC with infinite mercy. Today we remember that God is not a God who tolerates us but One who loves us…God who desires us—God whose very name is Mercy.