Second Sunday of the Resurrection or Divine Mercy Sunday
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need. Acts 2:43-45
Jesus) said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." John 20: 21-23
Jesus, we want to stay locked in our own lives and let you in for one hour every Sunday but you will not allow that. You will seek us and find us wherever we are…on vacation, at work, walking on city streets, running through crowded airports or ankle deep in water on our basement. When we open that door to you, you give us the Peace that you gave to your disciples. In their time of fear, you gave them comfort. In our times of stress, relieve us as well. Amen.
Jesus appears to the disciples who were locked in the upper room out of fear of what might happen to them. He shares breakfast with them. We recognize those we love in a special way when we share a meal with them. They knew that he was really alive because of the meal. How excited they must have been. Suddenly he was there and even more suddenly he was gone. He came as if through the wall. He is gone as if through the wall. He is solid body because his wounds can be touched. He consumes a breakfast.
The peace he gives them by his presence in their lives after they thought he was gone forever brings them happiness and safety. He talks to them about forgiveness. They had to be able to forgive themselves for not being with him in his terrible suffering. He does not say anything about their absence when he needed them. He is glad to see them and more concerned about them than they about him. They were locked in precisely because of their fear that the same thing would happen to them that happened to Jesus.
It is a big jump from fear of suffering to joy that they would be found worthy to suffer in his name. They knew themselves forgiven and they knew by his words that they would be able to forgive. “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven. Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” How automatic we assume forgiveness for the asking. To be reconciled to Christ is what forgiveness is all about. We see our sins forgiven without making the connection to Christ forgiving. The very words of the priest in the Sacrament are the words of Christ being lived out. It always sounds like the voice of the priest. It is our faith that teaches us it is the voice of Christ in the sound of the priest’s voice. The penance the priest gives is a way to make up to Christ what we have failed in. It is always part of love to pay back a gift with our love. How we our forgiving of ourselves and others speaks volumes about our love of Christ.
Piety is the quality of our love of another. It includes loving the good and the bad. When we love the person rather than what they are doing, we love just like Christ loved us. Christian community shares everything among its members. The rich take care of the poor. Love is the way we share our lives when we are willing to make up for another their faults and deficiencies. The waters of Baptism and the words of forgiveness accomplish the same removal of sin. Our appreciation of the love of Christ is imitated in the way we share what we have with one another. The call of the resurrection on our hearts is to find its fulfillment in the oneness we all have in Christ. The Resurrection has its start in all the ways we see the good in each other and share our lives in the richness of that hope. We are a Resurrection people with Christ as the love of our hearts and the hope we have for each other in our love. We are meant to be one in Christ.
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