Every year the Sunday following Easter has the same gospel account of the appearance of the risen Jesus to His disciples (John 20:19-31). Paradigmatic for us is the way the followers of Jesus, to carry out their mission to the world, have to move on from seeing to believing, even as the divine mercy (which gives the title to this Sunday since 2000) envelops humanity.
The bringer of peace and mercy
IT was the glorified Jesus who appeared to His disciples in the evening of that first day of the week when the tomb was found empty. The disciples were gathered behind locked doors, yet Jesus appeared in their midst all of a sudden. No longer restricted by space and time, He exhibited to them the marks of the nails in His hands and that in His side in ostensible continuity between the crucified Jesus and the risen one. He is the Living One “seated at the right hand of the Father” in glory and now present to and for all creation and His followers in particular whom He has not left orphans as He promised.
His unstoppable “coming” now in triumph from His Father means finally the peace and the mercy-filled reconciliation with God humankind has been waiting for. The conventional Jewish greeting of “Shalom” (peace) has assumed a markedly radical significance as bestowed by the risen Lord. He has definitively inaugurated the messianic era of peace and exultant joy (Isaiah 11). He now brings the peace to Earth born of his own union with the merciful Father (John 14:27ff).
The mission and faith
“AS the Father has sent me, so I send you.” His disciples must now proclaim to the world the good news of divine mercy victorious. The new future of love and compassion, which the resurrection of Jesus has established for humanity, needs to be made known to all people. Empowering them, he breathed on them and shared with them his Holy Spirit, fulfilling the prophecies of Ezekiel (36:27) and of Joel (3:1). By the paschal mystery of His death and resurrection, Jesus has accomplished the end-time projection of a world once deprived of God’s Spirit now energized anew by the “Dunamis” (Power) of the Most High. The power is for the mission of the disciples to liberate the world in Jesus’ name from sin and darkness into the freedom of God’s children. “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.” Serenely and solemnly the old curse was declared ended and the new blessedness in God’s mercy, in peace and forgiveness, made available to all by his followers’ mandated continuation of his work of salvation.
The mission demands the faith of the witnesses. A week later the second appearance of the risen Jesus focused on the man who was absent earlier and who set as His requirement “seeing” Jesus and his wounds, otherwise he said, “I will not believe.” Thomas is not here presented as a skeptic who believes only provided there are proofs. It was the initiative of Jesus to show the disciples His hands and side; He offered the same signs to Thomas. They all needed and received the same proofs. They all had to pass from doubt and incomprehension to belief. The story of Thomas represents the needed transition between two generations of believers, from the “chosen witnesses” (Acts 10:41) who saw the risen Lord to the later faithful throughout the world who receive the faith that comes from the apostles.
Alálaong bagá, the exhortation to us here and now is “Do not be unbelieving, but believe.” It is not enough to see for anyone to believe. As the disciples themselves went beyond their experience to attain to Easter faith, we also believe even if we have not seen Jesus. Transcending all proofs and witnesses, we say with Thomas every Sunday, the Day of the Risen Lord, “My Lord and my God!” as we personally acknowledge Jesus present in the signs of bread and wine in the Eucharist, as He brings us peace in the Holy Spirit and also sends us on a mission of love and mercy to all people.
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