Second Sunday of Easter: from doubt to faith

For the Second Sunday of the Easter season - Divine Mercy Sunday - here is the reflection I shared with those who came to break bread with us.

From doubt to belief

Throughout the Octave of Easter – the eight-day period that begins on Easter Sunday and ends today (with the Second Sunday of the Easter season), the scriptures recount various encounters that the disciples had with the risen Jesus on that first Easter day.  At the empty tomb, on the road to Emmaus, in the Upper Room, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee – in all these cases, the Lord appeared.  He did this in order to comfort and encourage the hearts of his beloved disciples who were still weak in their faith and filled with doubt.

I love the Easter Octave, because the stories of these encounters always help me to appreciate the fact that the disciples were just like you and me.  No matter how long we have been travelling the journey of faith, there is always a kernel of doubt and these stories remind us that we are not alone.  If even the disciples were filled with doubt and fear, perhaps it’s ok if you and I are filled with doubt and fear from time to time, but we have to be careful.  If we give in to doubt and fear, we will become more and more closed in upon ourselves, and this is definitely not what Easter is all about.

Jesus rose from the dead.  What is impossible for human beings has become possible because our God loves us so much that he was willing to suffer with us (cf Spe Salvi, 9) in order to open the doors and make it possible for us to enter into eternal life.  This is such a marvelous gift that we still have difficulty believing it.  Maybe that’s why we can understand the disciples decision to lock themselves in the Upper Room (Jn 20:19) but despite the fact that the doors were locked ... Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’.  No amount of human reasoning will ever be enough to convince us that Jesus rose from the dead.  This is a matter of faith.  We can hear about it over and over again, but until we experience it for ourselves, we will always be like Thomas: there will always be a part of us that will want to say: Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands ... and put my hand into his side, I will not believe (Jn 20:25).

Despite our stubbornness, Jesus never gives up on us.  He knows the truth: that each and every one of us is loved by our God and he will never give up on us.  One of the ways that God shows his love for us is something we call mercy.  It was Saint Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who lived in the early part of the twentieth century who first used the term Divine Mercy to refer to God’s gift for his beloved children.  During her earthly life, she received visions of Jesus who instructed her to spread the news of God’s infinite and merciful love for all people.  On the second Sunday of Easter in the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II canonized Saint Faustina and decreed that from that year onward, the Second Sunday of Easter would be known as Divine Mercy Sunday.

Our God is merciful; he is always willing to forgive us and to encourage us to believe that the impossible is possible: Jesus rose from the dead, and so will we.  Thomas refused to believe until he saw proof with his own eyes, but Jesus says: blessed are those who have not seen with their own eyes, and yet have come to believe (Jn 20:29).  Because they believed, the disciples went out into the world to tell others about Jesus, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3).  We too are disciples of Jesus, and apostles: those who are sent into the world.  In our day, we are the ones who Jesus fills with the good news of the Resurrection.  Enlivened by the joy of Easter, we must do as the apostles did: we must devote ourselves to teaching others what we ourselves have learned about our faith, we must not be afraid to let others see us gathering here to break bread and to pray together (Acts 2:42), we must willingly share the gifts and talents God has given us with others (Acts 2:44) ... and we must do this with glad and sincere hearts (Acts 2:47), for we have been entrusted with a treasure that is beyond all price: the promise of eternal life in heaven with a God who loves us.