It is a Sunday for Thomas (doubting). It is a Sunday where
we hear Jesus blessing us because even though we haven’t seen, we believe. It
is a Sunday of Divine Mercy. It is a Sunday where we hear the greatest
profession of faith coming out of the mouth of a doubter who upon touching and
seeing believed and said, “My Lord and My God.”It is Sunday evening and the apostles are holed up because of fear in the Cenacle. Out of nowhere the risen Christ appears and how does he greet them? “Peace be with you.”
Stop right there! Don’t go any further! Did I hear correctly?
If Our Lord thought like man, I don’t think that those would
have been the exact words that I would have used. If it were me I wonder how
unforgiving I would have been; how many things I would have thrown at my ‘friends’
who abandoned me, betrayed me and did absolutely nothing when I was at the hour
of my most need. I would have at least vented my dissatisfaction; I would have
made it known to them how I felt. But thank God, Oh thank God that Jesus does
not think like me. He doesn’t bring them trouble, no, just the opposite he
brings them His peace; “Peace be with you.” No, he doesn’t give them a piece of
our earthly mind but His heavenly peace.
Divine Mercy started on the cross. They say that a dying man
always tells the truth and the truth in Jesus was His mercy; “Lord forgive them
for they know not what they do.” Divine Mercy continued with His rising from
the dead and He charges His followers to do the same as He breathed on them and
said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
On the night He first appeared to them, on of them (Thomas)
was missing; maybe he found a safer place to hide. When the others told him
that they saw and touched Jesus he didn’t believe them. He needed to see and
touch Him for himself. Eight days later the Lord appeared to them again and
this time Thomas was there. I wonder what went through Thomas’ mind those eight
days. Thomas represents many lost sheep who do not believe until they have
something tangible. Why didn’t Jesus go out and find this lost sheep? Why did
He wait until they were all under the same roof?
Sometimes I think that we can’t wait for Jesus to come to us
all the time and that we need to go to Him – such as we do when we go to
church.
Thomas’ beautiful affirmation, “My Lord and My God” allowed
the grace Jesus offers to heal Thomas’ wounds. He offers us the same healing
grace for the wounds that prevent us from being whole. Alleluia!
“When Jesus was criticized for eating at the house of St.
Matthew, He responded, "the healthy do not need a physician but the sick
do, I have not come here for the righteous but for sinners, it is mercy I
desire, not sacrifice." The Church is not a museum for saints, but a
clinic for sinners. The word 'mercy' comes from the Latin word Misericordia.
... Miseria means misery, pain, sorrow, and cordia means heart.
And so it means to take another's pains to heart: to feel their pain and
sympathize with them.” Fr. Matthew Mauriello
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