May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
On Easter Sunday, we saw the empty tomb. On this day, we see and we hear the Risen
Lord. What will he say to his
disciples? What will he say to his
closest friends who abandoned the Lord in the hour of his suffering and death? What will he say to us, who promise day after
day and Sunday after Sunday, to live our lives as a reflection of his holy
life? What will he say?
There are many things that the Lord Jesus could have said to
his disciples. He could have asked the
disciples where they were on Friday. He
could have expressed his feeling of abandonment. The Lord Jesus could have said, “I am
disappointed in you.” The Lord Jesus
would have been perfectly justified in saying all of these things to the
disciples. And yet, his words are
simple, and they are powerful. Looking
with love on the disciples who were gathered together, the Lord Jesus said,
“Peace be with you.”
The first gift of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the
gift of his peace. This is the peace
that the world cannot give. This is the
peace that passes all understanding.
This is the peace, which Pope Francis says, we should never lose. The second gift of the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus is a special gift given to the apostles. Breathing on the apostles, he gives them the
Holy Spirit and says “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins
you retain are retained.” Not only has
the Lord forgiven the apostles their sins and their guilt, but the Lord Jesus
gives them a share in his own ministry of reconciliation. And what the Lord Jesus shared with his
apostles on the evening of his resurrection, they have shared to every
generation through the ministry of priests.
It is not so much a power, as it is a privilege and a sacred
responsibility, to extend the mercy of Christ to the repentant sinner and
restore a lost sheep to the flock. To be
a priest is to have known the mercy of God.
To be a priest is to share and to declare the mercy of God. On the evening of the resurrection, the Lord
Jesus made his apostles ambassadors and agents of his mercy.
Today the Church celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday. Based, in part, on the private revelations of
the Lord Jesus to Saint Faustina, on this day we celebrate the true depths of
the mercy of God. We celebrate the
invitation of the Lord to Thomas and the invitation to us, to enter into the
sacred wounds of the Lord Jesus. There,
in the opened heart of the Savior, will we find healing, peace, forgiveness and
mercy. And there, in the opened door of
the confessional, in the tribunal of the mercy of God, will we find healing,
peace, forgiveness and mercy.
This Sunday concludes our celebration of the octave of
Easter. This means that according to the
Liturgy, next Monday is the second day of the Easter season. Every day within an octave is considered to
be the same day as the feast day. Each
day of this past week we have really been celebrating Easter Day. So this Sunday is, in a real sense, the
twilight of the day of Easter. And so as
the hours fade from that glorious moment, when very early in the morning the
tomb was found empty, we bring this great day to its conclusion. What began with the proclamation of the
resurrection, ends with the promise of mercy.
Peace be with you. Amen.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic
Church, Monroe, NC
