My Lord and my God.... Jesus, I trust in you.

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Homily Outline for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday

Happy Easter, brother and sisters in our Risen Lord! Jesus Christ is risen, alleluia, alleluia! He is risen, indeed! Although most of us are finishing off our Easter candy and almost through those delicious leftover ham sandwiches, today is just as much Easter as last Sunday… this evening we enter into the octave day of Easter, the 8th day! The Church gives us these 8 days of intense liturgical joy because we need more than one day to begin to wrap our heads around the truth of that proclamation… “The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal!” Towards the end, the sequence says, “Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning,” and our opening prayer today says, “God of mercy, you was away our sins!” We also celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. Jesus suffered, died, and rose again precisely because we needed, and need, to be saved!

The Apostles needed to receive the very life and grace of God poured out through the Cross and Resurrection, and so do we! This theme is repeated in our readings: “And every day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” “I was hard pressed and was falling, but the Lord helped me.” “You rejoice…. as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of souls.” Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon His apostles, and immediately He says, “Receive the Hol Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” We are invited to believe, and we are filled with joy, precisely because we are so much in need of God’s healing and help, His Divine Mercy. Truly, we are each one of us beggars before the Lord.

It is difficult to admit this; it is difficult to receive this gift of faith. In the gospel we hear vividly of Thomas’ struggle. He will not believe unless he sees the Lord’s wounds. Upon seeing them he exclaims, “My Lord and my God.” Those wounds on the risen Lord speak of our need, His suffering, but also of the victory He offers to us!

We have not seen those wounds… Jesus offers us a blessing, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed!” But we have seen the fruits of that resurrection… before that gift of the Holy Spirit, the apostles are scared, they’re still holed up in hiding. But, after that, we hear of their courage in Acts, “They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.” They were no longer scared, even by persecution, martyrdom and death. This truth and proclamation has come down to us through long centuries of faith and courage. Today there are 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide connected to that upper room by an unbroken chain of faith and grace. Even as it is difficult to believe in our skeptical and cynical world, even as it is difficult to trust a Church made up precisely of broken people like us, nonetheless we have GOOD reason to trust message, this truth! Jesus Christ is risen, indeed! His Body, the Church still lives and breathes with that same Holy Spirit He breathed upon his apostles.

And the Lord’s action in the world did not cease upon His Ascension into heaven… He continues to be at work in the world. As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday today, we remember the concrete impact of Christ’s resurrection in the life of St. Faustina Kowalska… she was born in a poor family in 1905 in Poland. She grew up in the midst of poverty, hunger, and the horror of World War I. She heard God’s call to the religious life, and as a young nun the Lord appeared to her as He is depicted in the Divine Mercy Image: From His heart, pierced on the cross, shine out rays of white and red, signifying water and blood, Baptism and Eucharist. Jesus asked St. Faustina to share this image with a very simple message, “Jesus, I trust in you!” It was a message much needed in her difficult life, much needed in her broken land. Poland would suffer much more after her death than it did during her life: World War II, and the long Communist regime. It is a message and invitation just as much needed in our hearts and lives, so often broken by sin and suffering. Jesus has risen from the dead, He has trampled death by death. He offers us the fruits of that victory, if we will but receive them! Let us make that pray our own, let those words be on our lips… with Thomas let us say, “My Lord and my God.” With St. Faustina let us say, “Jesus, I trust in you.”