2nd Sunday of Easter
Year C. (Divine Mercy Sunday).
First Reading
Acts 5:12-16
Second Reading
Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19
Gospel
John 20:19-31
THEME: ALL IN MERCY
The Psalmist shouted this in
Psalm 130:3, “If you O Lord should mark our guilt, Lord who would survive? But
with you is found forgiveness.” All we have and are on this earth, we got from
the mercy of God. Judging us with merit, we are doomed but judging us with
mercy, we are redeemed. Jesus did not come to suffer, die and resurrect just to
show us that he has the power to do that but because of his mercy, love and
charity on us who are in bitter pain from the fall of the first Adam. Continue Reading.....................................
The first reading is a serious
manifestation of the Love and mercy of God through the apostles. Even their shadows
were healing people just because of his love and mercy on the sick who were
placed along the ways apostles were passing. God out of his love could not
allow those sick brought at the road sides to go empty handed because of his
mercy and their faith. Probably some of those sick ones where the cause of
their problems but God did not look at that, he went ahead and healed them
through the apostles and that is to show us the working of God today being the
divine mercy Sunday.
Because the message of salvation
may be misinterpreted and we will get false teachings of the church, the
importance of the canonicity of the New Testament Bible came in. It was done
for us to get the true teaching of God’s love and for us to know how we
approach them. This was to show that extension of love of God and to allow his
mercy to reach the ends of the earth. Just in the same way in the second
reading, John was asked to put down what he saw in a written form for us to see
it. It was no longer for John but for us who came after him and the other
apostles. This is also an extension of the mercy of God to us.
In the gospel, it was obvious
that Thomas was doubting the resurrection of Christ whom had told them about it
severally before his death and resurrection, yet he came back because of only
him. His mercy and love could not allow him leave Thomas in his doubt but he
came back for him to be cleared also on the issue of resurrection and faith in
him. On the path of Thomas, we can see the difference between him and Judas
Iscariot. He immediately recognized his mistakes and returned to the Lord not
running away from him. In all these, why should we not follow the Psalmist to
say, “Give thanks to the Lord for his good. For his love endures forever?” His
love for us has no end just that we need a small thing to do.
We have sinned in many ways and
the Lord has continued to love us and he has continued to forgive us our sins.
We should not relent in coming back to him and shouting like Thomas, “my Lord
and my God”. He is ever ready to welcome us back. As a way of extension, we
should know that the prerequisite for our forgiveness of sins lies in our own
ability to forgive others. Just as we say in the Lord’s Prayer, we shall do.
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. As we
have seen, the Lord’s mercy can only come to us through our own effort. God is
ever ready for us and if we in this mercy day forgive others who have sinned
against us, he will in turn forgive us. For those who think heaven is a court room
where God will judge you and your neighbour, husband, wife, children, in-laws,
friends, enemies and so on, far from that. Heaven is not so. We often say, “The
judgment between us is in heaven (ikpe mu na gi bu n’ eligwe)”, it will not be
so. It is better for us to reconcile here than losing God’s mercy and pardon.
He is rich in mercy and ever ready to show it to us. THANKS AND HAPPY DIVINE
MERCY SUNDAY.
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