HOMILY FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER 2020 ON 19TH APRIL 2020: DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY
HOMILY FOR THE SECOND
SUNDAY OF EASTER 2020 ON 19TH APRIL 2020: DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY
Readings: First reading Acts 2:42-47, Second, 1 Peter
1:3-9, Gospel John 20:19-31
My dear Brothers
and Sisters in Christ, last Sunday we celebrated the Solemn Sunday of Easter
which is the mother of all the Sundays we shall be celebrating till the Seventh
Sunday of Easter. All these Sundays are celebrated as one and as a continuation
of the Easter solemnity. This is the reason why we have Sundays from the second
to the 7th Sunday of Easter because they are connected and they celebrate
the Paschal Mysteries of Easter in a direct sense as our covenant of
reconciliation; our new birth.
Today therefore, we join together to celebrate the Second Sunday of
Easter and in a special
The Divine Mercy Chaplet
was directly given by Jesus to Saint Faustina; a young lady (a religious sister
in the congregation of Sisters of our Lady of mercy in Poland) who was not
educated and was from a poor family. She received extraordinary revelations about
God’s from our Lord Jesus Christ who asked her to write them and these writings
of St. Faustina are contained in her dairy of notes. In praying with psalm 63,
we pray saying, ‘O God you are my God,
for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting….and your love is better than
life…, in the similar as we celebrate this Sunday let us proclaim that the
Mercy of Jesus is better than life and continue longing for it in our life
especially in this awkward time of corona pandemic.
If I may ask anyone today to tell me about the cure we need for this pandemic, am sure that
the immediate answer will be ‘God’s mercy’. Indeed, God’s mercy is the only
essential need of our life at all moments and it was poured down to us through
the heart of Jesus. We must turn to the mercy of Jesus for this cure and for
our peace.
So, let us continually implore
the mercy of Jesus which saves us and renews us to live a life worthy of our Christian
calling. The celebration of this Sunday of mercy reminds us that the heart of
Jesus continues to overflow with great mercy for souls especially (we) the poor
sinners -the Blood and Water which flowed from Jesus’ heart was meant for our
cleansing but we cannot be cleansed and sanctified by it when we don’t draw to
Jesus’ ocean of mercy by allowing it to flow in us. We all have the right to
come to the experience of Jesus’ mercy which is open for all of us. We can
never perish once our trust in God’s mercy who grants us complete pardon of our
sins.
In the First
reading we are told about the life which was lived by early believers who
welcomed the message preached by Peter and the apostles by accepting to be
baptized in the name of Jesus. These believers modelled their life in the
teachings of the apostles who proclaimed that Christ suffered, died, was buried
and rose from the dead. They also devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and prayers; nothing else. This changed their lives to the extent that those
who looked at the way they lived were amazed. Their life was a eucharistic
life, a life of unity, a life of loving each other as brothers and sisters.
Those of the believers who had possessions brought them together and used them
as a community for the benefit of all. They (those who believed and converted)
did not privately own goods and possessions after turning to Christ. Rather
they would sell such goods at their disposal and distribute who they got
according to the needs of those they lived with.
This shows that
Christ had become the only true good and possession for these believers.
Therefore, for the purpose of prayer and celebrating the Eucharist together,
they spent much of their time in the temple praising God. My dear brothers and
sisters, the life of these people who had welcomed the message of Christ by
becoming believers should be our life too. We must welcome the message of the
risen Lord by emptying ourselves for the good of our brothers and sisters we
live with, by sharing the little we have together and by living a life of
prayer. The early believers/Christians drew all their strength from the word of
God which they shared together in the temple, they were nourished daily by the
breaking of bread which is the Eucharist. We took our celebration of the
Eucharist should be manifested in our unity and enthusiasm for serving others.
His mercy will always
be upon us and in the second reading, St. Peter praises such mercy which God
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has given us through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead. The power of God through faith protects us and we
ought always to rejoice in such protection which is lavished on us by his mercy
for our salvation till the end of ages. St. Peter in the Second
reading calls us to be ready to suffer, to face trials for the genuineness of
our faith which has to be tested. For him, our faith in Christ must be tested
so as to be strengthened and made precious than gold which perishes. Thus, accepting
Christ is not enough. To say that we belong or that we love Christ is not
enough either; to suffer for him and his message is what is crucial. We should
not run away when we are challenged, when we are persecuted on the account of
our faith we must remain strong and be in position to stand and defend our
faith for the glory, praise and honor of Jesus through whom we believe and
await the glorious joy of our salvation.
The disciples had
suffered enough for being witnesses of the risen Christ and His message. They
were living in fear and discouragement as they were being persecuted and
because of this, they could no longer openly go out to continue with their
work. Amidst their fear, when the doors of the house they were staying were
closed, Jesus came and stood among them and said ‘peace be with’ and He showed
them his hands and his side. The peace that Jesus gives cannot be given by
anyone nor can any material good give us such peace in our lives. The peace
that he gave them was the peace of his presence in their lives and with Him
they no longer needed to fear anything. With Jesus present in their midst,
their hearts were calmed, they felt serenity which brought them to rejoicing after
seeing their Risen Lord and Master.
For the second
time, Jesus said to them, ‘peace be with you’ and commissioned them as the
father had sent him. He breathed on them the fire of the Holy Spirit, saying
‘receive the Holy Spirit’. More to giving them the Holy Spirit, Jesus gave them
the power to forgive sins. With this power which he vested on the apostles,
Jesus instituted the sacrament of penance and reconciliation by giving his
disciples the power to forgive sins after filling their hearts with the Holy
Spirit. While administering
the sacrament of confirmation, the minister uses these words of Christ saying
‘receive the Holy Spirit’ to the candidate. Peace is Jesus himself and in
confirmation we become His witnesses and soldiers called to go out and proclaim
Him with confidence and without fear.
Therefore, the today' readings continue to invite you and me to give witness to the risen Lord by our
life and examples. The first Christian believers who were converts perfectly
showed this in the life style that they were living in Jerusalem. They prayed
unceasing and centered their life in reading the scriptures and breaking the
bread together as one family. This is what the Eucharist must do to us. The
Eucharist is life and after receiving this life, we must give life to others by
our expression of love and care. Participating in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist
and reading the word of word must makes us one with Christ and one with each
other for the greater glory of God.
Some Catholics and
other believers (from different denominations) have a common challenge which
was experienced by Thomas. When Jesus appeared to the disciples and after
saying to them ‘peace be with you’, he showed them his hands and his side and
immediately they believed that he was the one appearing to them as he had done
to Mary Magdalene but Thomas was not with them when Jesus appeared. So, the
other disciples had the duty to tell him about the appearance of Jesus to them.
When they told him that they had seen the Lord, he could not believe. He wanted
to put his finger in the side of Jesus and feel the marks of the nails by his
hands before believing. Unbelief is becoming a common challenge and this can be
seen in the trust that we give to technology other than to Jesus. We believe
that technology can solve most of the world’s problems. This can be one way of
expressing our doubt in Jesus by assigning priority to technology.
So, for the third
time, Jesus appeared to his disciples when they were again in closed doors and
Thomas was with them, Jesus said to them again ‘peace be with you’ and he asked
Thomas to put his finger in his side and to have a look at his hands and asked
him to doubt no more but to believe. After a journey of unbelieve, Thomas now
believed and said ‘My Lord and my God’ and Jesus replied saying, ‘blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have come to believe’. Some of us are like
Thomas in a way that we want to believe after seeing. People are wondering in
churches (changing from one church to another) because they want to see and get
miracles for them to believe. But be sure that this is not the way of the catholic
church. The catholic church is not after miracles because it has the greatest
miracle of Jesus’ presence in the sacraments which he instituted by himself.
Jesus is present in all the sacraments that the catholic church administers. He
is present in the Eucharist and in all the sacraments. Doubting his presence in
these sacraments is equivalent to the doubt of Thomas who did not believe that
Jesus had physically appeared to the disciples in his absence.
We need to be
people of great faith and this is the reason why Jesus breathed on each of us
with the Holy Spirit that we may be enriched with great faith through him who
guides us. The Holy Spirit continues to help us in witnessing to our faith in
Jesus. The foundation of faith and believing should not be a matter of miracles
but should be about that reading to stand for what we believe (to stand for
Jesus). The other people in Jerusalem witnessed no miracle other than the love
that the Christians were exercising for each other in their religious community.
This was a miracle which showed them how powerful love can be in building communion.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters lets ask God to fill our hearts with
the gifts of the holy spirit and to renew his presence in us by strengthening
our faith through his presence as he gives peace to each one of us.
DEACON PETER WAKUBARIO, CAMILIAN
Commentaires