20220424 ENCOUNTERING DIVINE MERCY IN THE RISEN LORD
24 April, 2022, 2nd Sunday of Easter
First reading | Acts 5:12-16 © |
The numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily
The faithful all used to meet by common consent in the Portico of Solomon. No one else ever dared to join them, but the people were loud in their praise and the numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily. So many signs and wonders were worked among the people at the hands of the apostles that the sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping-mats in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across some of them as he went past. People even came crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were cured.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 117(118):2-4,22-27 © |
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.
or
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Let the sons of Israel say:
‘His love has no end.’
Let the sons of Aaron say:
‘His love has no end.’
Let those who fear the Lord say:
‘His love has no end.’
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.
or
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the corner stone.
This is the work of the Lord,
a marvel in our eyes.
This day was made by the Lord;
we rejoice and are glad.
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.
or
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
O Lord, grant us salvation;
O Lord, grant success.
Blessed in the name of the Lord
is he who comes.
We bless you from the house of the Lord;
the Lord God is our light.
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.
or
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Second reading |
Apocalypse 1:9-13,17-19 © |
I was dead, and now I am to live for ever and ever
My name is John, and through our union in Jesus I am your brother and share your sufferings, your kingdom, and all you endure. I was on the island of Patmos for having preached God’s word and witnessed for Jesus; it was the Lord’s day and the Spirit possessed me, and I heard a voice behind me, shouting like a trumpet, ‘Write down all that you see in a book.’ I turned round to see who had spoken to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands and, surrounded by them, a figure like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a golden girdle.
When I saw him, I fell in a dead faint at his feet, but he touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One, I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld. Now write down all that you see of present happenings and things that are still to come.’
Sequence |
Victimae Paschali Laudes
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
offer sacrifice and praise.
The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;
and Christ, the undefiled,
hath sinners to his Father reconciled.
Death with life contended:
combat strangely ended!
Life’s own Champion, slain,
yet lives to reign.
Tell us, Mary:
say what thou didst see
upon the way.
The tomb the Living did enclose;
I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!
The angels there attesting;
shroud with grave-clothes resting.
Christ, my hope, has risen:
he goes before you into Galilee.
That Christ is truly risen
from the dead we know.
Victorious king, thy mercy show!
Gospel Acclamation | Jn20:29 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus said: ‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 20:19-31 © |
Eight days later, Jesus came again and stood among them
In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.
‘As the Father sent me,
so am I sending you.’
After saying this he breathed on them and said:
‘Receive the Holy Spirit.
For those whose sins you forgive,
they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain,
they are retained.’
Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:
‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.
ENCOUNTERING DIVINE MERCY IN THE RISEN LORD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Acts 5:12-16; Ps 118:2-4,22-27; Rev 1:9-13,17-19; John 20:19-31]
We are all in need of mercy. Many of us are physically sick and suffering pain in our bodies. We cannot underestimate the pain of physical suffering, the inconvenience we have to put up with and the anxiety as to who will look after us. Being immobile or losing our faculties is a dreadful experience. That is why, when people come for prayers, the most immediate thing they pray for is good health. This is not surprising because the first miracles worked by the apostles were physical and spiritual healing. We read that “that the sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping-mats in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across some of them as he went past. People even came crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were cured.”
Some are suffering emotional and psychological pain. We live in fear and in anxiety. We live in fear of the future, our opponents, those who do not like us and our competitors. We cannot forgive ourselves for the sins we have committed. Like the apostles who locked themselves up in the Upper Room for fear that they might be arrested by the Jews, they were also fearful of Jesus because they had denied the Lord and abandoned Him when He was most in need of their support. They were afraid of external enemies on one hand, and on the other hand, unable to accept their failings and move on. Fear also leads us to see everyone as our enemies, and we cannot forgive them too for the fears they planted in our hearts.
Some of us, like St John, suffer from religious persecution. St John wrote, “My name is John, and through our union in Jesus I am your brother and share your sufferings, your kingdom, and all you endure. I was on the island of Patmos for having preached God’s word and witnessed for Jesus.” For professing the name of Jesus and preaching the gospel, St John was put in exile on the island. Many of us too suffer religious persecution, not so much in the form of torture but we are silenced from speaking about Jesus in a secular world. Whenever we speak of the gospel values which contradict the world, such as abortion, same-sex union, euthanasia, pornography, promiscuity and drugs, we are ridiculed as narrow-minded and bigoted. So many of us are fearful of being attacked by the world, and hence prefer to choose silence as a way to protect our peace. Yet there can be no peace so long as our conscience is disturbed because we fail to protect our children and children’s children from being brainwashed by the negative, materialistic and self-centred values of the world.
How can we stand firm in times of illness, fear, anxiety and religious persecution if not to seek God’s mercy? The good news is that Christ is the Divine Mercy of God. Indeed, throughout His whole life, Christ showed us the mercy of His Father by preaching forgiveness and God’s providence for us; by His healing miracles; and by His works of exorcism, delivering those who were under the bondage of the Evil One. Most of all, divine mercy is best summed up in the Paschal Mystery of our Lord which we have just celebrated in the Easter Triduum.
Beginning with the Mass of the Last Supper, we witnessed God’s mercy in Jesus who stooped so low as to wash the feet of His disciples, granting them forgiveness and giving them an example of what love entails. He took the form of a servant to serve us even unto death on the cross. At the meal, Jesus extended His hand even to His betrayer, Judas, seeking his repentance. When He was arrested, He told the soldiers to set His men free and even healed the ear of Malchus, which was cut off by Simon Peter. Even when He was in danger, Jesus was always thinking about the well-being of His men and even His enemies. (Lk 22:51)
Then on Good Friday, we celebrated the death of our Lord which is the climax of God’s mercy. Even when carrying the heavy cross on the way to Calvary, He sought to assuage the pain of the women of Jerusalem, saying, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” (Lk 23:28) When hanging on the cross, He prayed for the forgiveness of His enemies. (Lk 23:34) In His death on the cross, Jesus showed the mercy and compassion of God. Without resisting, He was led to the cross and was shamefully put to death. He died outside Jerusalem like a condemned sinner. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)
But even if we had witnessed the washing of the feet of His disciples and His passion and crucifixion on the cross, we might not believe that God is divine mercy and that His mercy can overcome sin, evil and death. For the crucifixion on the cross and His death was a scandal to the disciples of Jesus, seen in their hiding in the Upper Room and the disciples walking away from Jerusalem to Emmaus, disheartened at what had happened. The death of Jesus does not show divine mercy. On the contrary, it shows the lack of mercy of God for allowing a good and holy man to die innocently at the hands of evil men. His death was not a cause of rejoicing but a tragedy. At most, we can say that Jesus was a good man, but He was misguided into thinking that He was the Messiah. So just by contemplating on the Passion and death of our Lord cannot bring us to faith.
The truth of God’s mercy is shown and completed by the Father raising a presumably condemned criminal back to life from the dead. In raising Jesus from the dead, the Father was endorsing all that Jesus had said and done. That He was truly identified with the Father in His words and deeds. In raising Jesus from the dead, it means that sin and death have been overcome by the power of love and life. St John concluded in the gospel that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” Even St Thomas who doubted the Risen Lord also needed to have faith to come to believe that Jesus is the Lord. Upon seeing the marks of the crucified Christ in the Risen Lord, he made a leap of faith by professing Jesus as “My Lord and my God!” Just looking at the Crucified Christ alone might not convince us of God’s mercy, but accepting His resurrection is a sure testimony to God’s mercy which overcomes evil and death forever.
Indeed, only faith in the resurrection of our Lord could grant us real peace even in our suffering. We read in the gospel that when “Jesus came and stood among them”, “He said to them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.'” They found peace and joy only when they saw the Lord and when they knew that the Lord was with them, in their midst. They were no longer afraid or cowardly. They were now strengthened to go out of the Upper Room and be sent to announce the Good News of God’s mercy and forgiveness in Jesus the Risen Lord. “‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’ After saying this he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.'” Truly, whenever we know that God is with us, and that Jesus has conquered sin, suffering and death, we too can find hope as well. This was the same assurance given to John at Patmos in a vision. “‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One. I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld.” God is in charge and so there is no need to fear about our future even when we are under trials and tribulations.
Today, we are asked to put our faith in Jesus as the Risen Lord, the divine mercy of God. We continue to see as the early Christians did, the signs of God’s work in our lives, at times, extraordinary signs as in miracles, especially of healing and exorcism. At other times, helping us to overcome our challenges in life, especially in hopeless situations. But as John wrote, “There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.”
Indeed, all these signs are meant to lead us to believe in Christ as the divine mercy of God. Hence, we must not doubt when such signs are presented to us. The Lord said to Thomas, “Doubt no longer but believe!” There are some of us who are always questioning whether God loves us and cares for us when He has shown His love in so many ways, big and small in our daily life. There are still many who are still questioning the existence of God. To such people, the Lord says, “Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Not only must we recognize the signs of the Risen Lord in our lives, especially the mercy shown to us by others, and His divine providence for our needs and vocation in life, we are called in turn to be signs of divine mercy to others. Like the apostles, we must go out and give hope to others by our forgiveness and assuring them that they are loved and that God is with them in their struggles. In this way, we can all together, like the Israelites and the Christians, say “Let the sons of Israel say: ‘His love has no end.’ Let the sons of Aaron say: ‘His love has no end.’ Let those who fear the Lord say: ‘His love has no end.'”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment