Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter, year B

We celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday today, a recent addition to the Church’s calendar. Pope John Paul II, on April 30 2000 added this feast to the Church’s calendar to be celebrated every second Sunday of Easter. A feast that has a link with a private revelation to Sr. Faustina and is also scripture-based.

Though we appreciate God’s mercies every moment, we celebrate Divine Mercy, especially today in the context of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ which comes with restoration, restoring us to grace.

Jesus arose to raise us to unimaginable spiritual height, a height no other power except ourselves can pull down. We do not deserve this favor, but the unfathomable mercy of God never fails, it endures forever to lift and restore us to grace.

Divine Mercy is about the sacrificial and speaking blood of Christ that speaks better words than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:24). Blood speaks; the blood of Abel spoke in Genesis 4:10, crying out to God for vengeance against his brother Cain who murdered him. It was all about condemnation, about the evil Cain committed. The sacrificial Blood of Jesus Christ also speaks, but the Blood of Jesus Christ speaks love and mercy, not about our failures, weaknesses, and sins, but about our restoration.

Divine mercy brings restoration as we see in our gospel passage this morning (John 20:19-31). The apostles who were called by Christ to be strong vessels and channels of the gospel of truth were weakened by fear and doubt after the crucifixion of Jesus. Their hearts were heavy with grief, they struggled to make sense of the events that had transpired, and they were losing their spiritual breath behind a closed door and probably in a dark room. But the risen Christ in his glory showed up in that dark room and breathed life again onto them, he restored their diminishing breath, gave them the gift of peace, and filled them with the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes in life, we find ourselves in a very difficult situation like the apostles were, we live behind a closed door, in a dark room of fear and confusion, not knowing what to do next. But I tell you, even in our darkest moments, when we feel abandoned and alone, Jesus is there, offering us his peace, mercy, forgiveness, and direction. His mercy knows no bounds, reaching out to embrace us in our brokenness and offering us the hope of redemption.

Divine mercy may seem to be so far away, but it’s so near. Jesus blest the Church with the sacrament of reconciliation through which we are reconciled to the Father in his name, he gave the power to forgive sins to the Church through the apostles. When Jesus showed up behind the closed door and breathed on the apostles, he said to them, “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.” That apostolic authority flowed down to us through the laying on of hands at ordination, the laying on of hands is a symbolic act that sets one apart; it empowers, authorizes, and fills one with the Holy Spirit. The power to forgive sins is of Christ, given to the apostles and transmitted in the Catholic Church through the apostolic succession. The sacrament of reconciliation is God’s expression of his unfathomable mercy, it is a treasure even though we’re sometimes tempted to focus on the fragility of the vessel that holds the treasure. St. Paul wrote, “We have this treasure in an earthen vessel, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.” Let us therefore, on this day, not only embrace the mercies and forgiveness of God but also be thankful for them.