THE MERCY, THE MERCIFUL AND ME!

Divine Mercy Sunday - Second Sunday of Easter

April 28, 2019: Acts 5:12-16; Revelation 1: 9-13, 17-19; John 20: 19-31 

The Risen Christ is the face of the Mercy of God;  the Risen Lord appears to strengthen the Faith of his disciples. They see and they believe. They bore witness to this belief and passed it on and a community was built around. Today we are the continuity of that community, which has the call and the command to make present this mercy... making the Reign of God possible here and now!

CHRIST, THE MERCY: Thanks to Pope St. John Paul II, we have a great feast to celebrate today! The Mercy of God is essentially that aspect of God accepting us as God's children without any conditions. 'If you should see our guilt O Lord , who can stand before you', exclaims the Psalmist. God chooses not to see our limitations and our failures. Just look at the way Jesus overlooks the incredulity of the apostles - we have an illustrious example of Thomas today in the Gospel. The blood and water that flowed from the heart of Jesus is the proof that Jesus is the face of the mercy of God. As the true Son of God, Christ made present God in his words, works, choices and priorities. He lived as the face of the Mercy of God here on earth.

CHRISTIANS, THE MERCIFUL: You believe because you have seen, blessed are those who haven't seen yet believe. Faith is not having to see, not having to look for proofs, not having to rely on evidences but accepting in the depths of our beings the merciful presence of the Risen Lord with us, all our life. The fundamental message of resurrection consists in the hope of the presence of the Lord with us; it experiencing the mercy of God in and through Christ, in such a deep manner that we become personifications of that mercy. Only the merciful can deserve to be called Christians. The disciples knew it. The Apostles were convinced of it. That is why they became extensions of the presence of Christ... they were living testimonies to what Christ had promised: 'those who believe in me shall do what I do, and even greater' (Jn 14:12). They made Christ's presence felt, they became the face of the face of the mercy of God, here on earth. Just as the Father sent me, so I send you... be merciful as your heavenly father is, says Our Lord.

CHRIST'S MERCY AND ME: Relying on the Mercy of God and basing ourselves on the faith we have in Christ, we are called to live a life of trust and mercy. We are called to grow more and more merciful, like the Father Himself. Today we have the call and the way to live it, both outlined in the readings. It is a special gift to grow in that sensitivity with which we readily notice the hand of God in the developments that surround us. Mercy is not merely an emotional momentary response to something that happens. For instance, an event such as the Srilankan Easter Carnage would instantly draw us to an emotional outbreak but that would not sufficiently amount to mercy. Mercy would be a determined convinced choice to stand by the affected, the suffering, the oppressed, the weak, the voiceless, the lonely, the marginalised, the deprived, the exploited, the innocent, the righteous, in short, a choice for the Reign here and now! Am I truly prepared for such a choice? 

Christ, the Mercy of God makes us Christians true instruments of the Mercy of God and it is my choice to make of myself a true Christian, that is a person who is truly Merciful.

May our hearts and our lives be filled with the Mercy of God!