2^nd Sunday of Easter (Mercy Sunday); April 7, 2024

Acts 4:32-35.  Ps 118.  1 Jn 5:1-6.  Jn 20:19-31

Deacon Jim McFadden

            The seven weeks between Easter Sunday and Pentecost constitutes the Easter season.  While lest well known than Advent or Lent—people will give you quizzical looks when you say “Happy Easter” well into May—the Easter season is important because it gives us the time as a Church community to absorb the significance of the experience of Jesus’s Resurrection.  And, by doing so, we reflect on the difference the Easter event makes in our own lives.

            Towards that end, we have to deal with the problematic concern is that the Risen Christ is still the Wounded Christ: “When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.  The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (Jn 20:20).   Today, the 2^nd Sunday of Easter, we are called to contemplate, along with Thomas and the other disciples, the wounds of the Risen One, Divine Mercy, which overcomes our limitations  and shines into the darkness of evil and sin.  But, why is the Risen Lord still wounded?  He’s gone through his Passion and Death—isn’t that past history?  Why the wounds?  He’s Resurrected; why can’t He appear without the signs of his ordeal?  Why can’t we move on from that grizzly crucifixion? 

            What we have to deal with is that the glorified Christ puts his Resurrection and woundedness together. By showing the disciples his wounds, he was giving us the gift of his mercy: by those wounds we are healed (cf. 1 Pet 2:24; Is 53:5).  But how does that work?  In those wounds, like Thomas, we can literally touch the fact that God has loved us to the very end.  By embracing our humanity, Jesus has made our wounds his own and borne our weaknesses in his body.  Those wounds aren’t just memorabilia for a historical event on Calvary, but are open channels between the Risen Christ and ourselves; his mercy is conveyed through them.  His wounds are the pathways that God has open up for us to enter into and experience the tender love and actually “touch” who the Risen Christ is.

            Let us never forget just how much God loves us.  In standing before his wounds and getting so close that we even kiss them, we come to realize that in his tender mercy all of our weaknesses and brokenness  are accepted. And, do you know where we can experience this reality?  At Holy Mass, where Jesus offers his wounded and risen Body to his Father.  We touch Jesus and he touches our lives where we are when we receive him in Communion.  By doing so, our Lord is making heaven come down to us right here and now.  When we receive him, the darkness that we carry within is dispelled because we carry the Light of the World within our bodies, our very person.  Like Thomas, we really experience God among us; we realize just how close God is to us and we are moved to exclaim, “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28). 

            Brothers and sisters, this is the starting point of our Christian journey into the mystery of the Triune God.  But if we put our trust in “princes,” in our own abilities and agendas, in the efficiencies of our political, economic, and social projects, we will not go far.  Only if we accept the unconditioned love of God, will we able to offer something new and substantive to the world. 

            And that is exactly what the disciples did: receiving mercy, they in turn became merciful.  This is the lesson from our first reading form the Acts of the Apostles in which we hear, “no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common” (Acts 4:32).  Now, if this was proclaimed on some cable news outlets, we’d hear, “That’s communism!”  That reminds me many years back when activist Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now! And The West Wing) was accused of being a “commie” at a protest gathering in downtown Los Angeles.    He retorted, “I’m more radical that than that.  I am a Catholic!  Exactly!  This quote from the Acts of the Apostles is pure Christianity because it recognizes that we don’t have an absolute entitlement to our property, but only a relative use.  Relative to what?  To our Father’s will.  What’s so surprising is that the same disciples who were arguing about prizes and rewards, who was greatest (cf. Mt 10:37; Lk 22:24) are now sharing everything!

            How did they make this change?  They saw in others the same mercy that had changed their lives.  They discovered that they had the same Mission, the same forgiveness, and they shared in the Body of Christ.  So, given all of that, it just seemed natural to share their earthly possessions with others, along with their time and talent.   Consequently, “There was not a needy person among them” (v. 34).  Their fears had been dispelled by touching the Lord’s wounds, and now they were unafraid to heal the wounds of those in need.  Why?  They see Jesus amongst the poor, the anawim.  And because Jesus is there, in the wounds of those who are in need, they become conduits of divine mercy. 

            Let us ask Mary Most Holy that we become channels of divine mercy. Only in this way will our faith be alive just as hers is.  Only by following our Blessed Mother’s example will we proclaim the Gospel, which is the Gospel of mercy. Amen.

            Reflection Questions:

1. Why is the Risen Christ still wounded?
2. “By his wounds we are healed.”  What does that mean to you?
3. The Early Church shared their possessions with others.  What does that look for you in the 21^st century?