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2nd Sunday of Easter 2012
1. 15 April 2012 2nd Sunday of Easter Princeton, NJ
It was the summer of 1925 that a poor and uneducated 19 year old fled her parents and begged to join a
convent in Poland and three years later that dream came. Soon after, between 1931 and 1938 the risen
Christ made a number of appearances to Sister Mary Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament. The various
messages Christ gave to Faustina during that time were eventually published in her book, Diary: Divine
Mercy in My Soul. And one of the many conversations she recounts in book is a direct request from Christ
that a feast of Divine Mercy is to be established on the first Sunday after Easter so that all people would take
refuge in His mercy.
The first Divine Mercy Sunday was celebrated in April 1935 but it would not be until 2000 until Pope John
Paul II canonized Sr. Faustina and gave this Sunday its official designation. Interestingly it was five years
later that John Paul died on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday.
It is surmised that this Sunday was chosen to celebrate Christ’s universal mercy because the readings of this
day always deal with the mercy of Christ. Today’s gospel from John is the famous passage of Thomas’
doubt in the risen Lord, for he had not been present when Christ first appeared to his fellow disciples.
Frankly I think he gets a bum rap, because none of his fellow disciples believed Christ rose from the dead
until they saw him too! But it was the Sunday after Christ rose from the dead that we find all the disciples still
hiding behind locked doors. And once again Jesus appears but this time Thomas is present – Thomas – who
like his fellow disciples needed to see in order to believe in the risen Lord. And as we know – as soon as
Thomas sees, just as when the disciples saw, just as when Mary Magdala saw – they believed that Jesus
was the Christ.
But it seems clear that it wasn’t enough to just see and believe. It wasn’t good enough for the followers to
hole up in the Upper Room day and night and tell each other that they believe. Jesus was looking for them to
do more and thus was calling them to be sent forth – just as his Father had sent him. They needed to get
out from behind the locked doors of their lives and to continue to do what Jesus did – teach, heal and
forgive. But now things were a bit different when they would go to the temple and teach, as did Jesus. And
this difference is tied to a particular line we hear each year in the Passion story which has significant
meaning.
Remember what happened the moment Jesus died - the sanctuary veil of the temple was torn in two from
top to bottom. Now keep in mind, this was not your everyday living room curtain – This temple veil or curtain
was 4 inches thick with a height of almost 70 feet, weighing 4 tons and taking 300 priests to carry it in place.
The purpose of this curtain was to separate and define the holy from the unholy. The Latin word for temple
is fanum and everything outside the temple veil was called pro-fanum – thus the derivative of our word
profane. So with this tearing of the curtain there was no longer separation of holy and unholy – there was no
more ‘profane.’ Rather, everything was now fanum…the holy…the temple. Christ’s crucifixion and death on
the cross ended the division of who was deemed by man to be holy and right…who was in and who was out.
For it is in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ that the disciples and we are sent forth to call all
people to God. And one only has to focus on the core of today’s gospel to know what we are all called to do!
For when Christ appeared to Thomas and all the disciples gathered in the Upper Room, he did not ask for
retribution to his persecutors…
He did not call for a “just war” on his oppressors…
1 Deacon Jim Knipper
2. He did not ask them to start a new religion…
He didn’t ask them to write a book of Canon Law…
He didn’t ask them to go out and build cathedrals and basilica’s…
And Christ certainly did not ask them to go out and decide who was worthy and who was not…
Rather the risen Christ sends the disciples forth from the Upper Room, with the gift and graces of the Holy
Spirit, and asks them to do one thing, in saying...
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and
Whose sins you retain are retained.
He asked them to go forth and forgive others, just as he had done. And this direction and empowerment
was given to all his disciples, all his followers, not just the apostles. For the risen Christ reminds us that we
are all called to forgive and called to forgive all. We are called to forgive our spouses, our children, our
parents, our co-workers, our priests, our deacons, our church, our institutions, our government and even
those that violate us.
But probably the most important and the most difficult person to forgive: is ourselves. Very few of us want to
go there – but that is what Jesus emphasized and taught. No matter what we have done, God loves us and
forgives us with unconditional love and unending mercy. This was what he told his disciples and it is the
same message repeated to Sr. Mary Fautsina. You can almost picture Christ shaking his head after 1,900
years and saying, ‘They missed my point! Let me try it again!’ when he told Faustina, “Every soul that
believe and trusts in my mercy, will have it.”
Christ tells us through today’s Gospel that those trespasses, those debts we are willing to let go of…that we
forgive in ourselves and others…are forgiven. They are released from being part of us….while those that we
hold onto and bind within ourselves will erode our well being, thereby blocking relationships with others and
with God.
And this whole concept of seeing and believing that we heard in John’s gospel is based on the fact that for
forgiveness to take place we must be able to see God in others and see God in ourselves and be open to
forgive. That is what he called his disciples to do and that is what you and I are called to do.
So, on this Divine Mercy Sunday, may we ask for and trust in God’s mercy, and give that mercy to others….
May we, filled with the graces of the Holy Spirit, step outside our personal locked doors and have the
strength to forgive all…
And during this Easter Season may we open our eyes to see God in others and ourselves so that through
this new sight we, too, may believe and have life in God’s holy name.
2 Deacon Jim Knipper
