Feast of Divine Mercy: Doubting Thomas and the Wounds that Heal Our Disbelief

4/16/2012

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the last, the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld."

And then there was Thomas. Jesus turned Thomas�s doubt into an event of Mercy for generations to come. Out of a true repentance born from seeing Mercy Incarnate, touching the wounds of His Divine love, came those wonderful words that have formed the most profound of personal prayers for millennia. "My Lord and My God" Pope St Gregory was right, "Thomas� doubt healed the wounds of all of our doubts". At the Liturgy of Canonization for Sister Mary Faustina Kowalski, Sunday, April 30, 2000, the late Venerable Pope John Paul II proclaimed:

"Before speaking these words, Jesus shows his hands and his side. He points, that is, to the wounds of the Passion, especially the wound in his heart, the source from which flows the great wave of mercy poured out on humanity. From that heart Sr Faustina Kowalska, the blessed whom from now on we will call a saint, will see two rays of light shining from that heart and illuminating the world: "The two rays", Jesus himself explained to her one day, "represent blood and water" Divine Mercy reaches human beings through the heart of Christ crucified and Risen.

"My daughter, say that I am love and mercy personified", Jesus asked of Sr Faustina. Christ pours out this mercy on humanity though the sending of the Spirit who, in the Trinity, is the Person-Love. And is not mercy love's "second name" understood in its deepest and most tender aspect, in its ability to take upon itself the burden of any need and, especially, in its immense capacity for forgiveness? Jesus told St. Faustina: "Humanity will not find peace until it turns trustfully to divine mercy"

St. Faustina Kowalska wrote in her Diary, "I feel tremendous pain when I see the sufferings of my neighbors. All my neighbors' sufferings reverberate in my own heart; I carry their anguish in my heart in such a way that it even physically destroys me. I would like all their sorrows to fall upon me, in order to relieve my neighbor."

At every Eucharist let us echo these beautiful words of Thomas, "My Lord and My God". Let us ask the Lord of Mercy for the grace to become true messengers of Mercy to this age so desperately in need of it.

Thank God for 'Doubting Thomas'. His doubts healed the wounds of our own disbelief. They also open up for all who look with the eyes of faith a deeper understanding of the redemptive effect of the wounds of Jesus - and the role our own wounds can have in our continuing call to conversion as we join them to His.

Thomas the doubter became the Thomas the model believer, an example for each one of us. On every Feast of Divine Mercy we are in vited to echo his marvelous proclamation "My Lord and My God". We also ask that through the intercession of Saint Faustina, that the Lord of Mercy give us each the graces we need to become true messengers of Mercy to an age filled with despar and disbelief.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Divine Mercy, Unbelief, doubt, wounds, healing, Doubting Thomas, Living Faith, Sr. Faustina, prayer, spirituality, Deacon Keith Fournier

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1 - 4 of 4 Comments

Rev. A. Edward Moch D.D.
2 months ago
In the next coming weeks after Easter Sunday, we will be celebrating "Divine Mercy Sunday". Much has occured and still unfolding to this day. Since then, my research into a "Divine Mercy Event" that happened in 1962 shows in my opinion "promise", as "The Bronx Apparition of 1962" and what was seen and reported by "Two Young Boys" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v/vvVJBjdTksQ at the time, supports not only ST. Faustina of Poland and "The Divine Mercy Movement" as real, but also serves as "a Divine Conduit" to other approved and non-approved events. Almost forgotten, this Divine Event was re-discovered in the late 1990's, when a psychology student named Irene Blinston, wanted to get her doctorate in the understanding of "Children that have seen Religious or Divine Apparitions". The result of some of her research on Religious Apparitions, Dr. Blinston help to bring "The Bronx Apparition of 1962" back to the surface. For more on "The Bronx Apparition of 1962"... See Facebook: https://facebook.com/#!/groups/379469028814967/

Brave Blessings;

Rev. A. Edward Moch D.D.
Psychical Analyst-Consultant
andrew
1 year ago
Wasn't this the disciple who said "Let us also go to die with him.". Would you call that 'doubting'. The beloved disciple knew better. Why not one of the other ten who saw the risen Lord exclaim "My Lord and my God", will remain a mystery. If we meet the risen Lord, what would be our reaction? That we have seen the Lord? That's it? Jesus chose Thomas to tell us that we are blessed.
DLL
1 year ago
The Priest gave a Homily on the Divine Mercy at Church today. He said that Timothy McVey confessed and repented His sins before His execution in 2002. I am so glad that He did as that is what the sacrament of reconciliation is all about as well as rehabilitation,if one is doing life in prison. I was praying that he would at that time. Happy Divine Mercy Sunday! Gods Mercy is greater than the worst of sins anyone can commit. To ForgiveThat is the Power of Prayer. We must all also be as merciful even as God is to us all as sinners. Even as if we were victims of grave sins we must also forgive. That is the real hard message of the Divine Mercy.
abey
1 year ago
It seems St, Thomas needed all the confirmations or in other words the full belief, considering the land where he was supposed to preach Christ- India, the very land of Disbelief, stuck in their ancients, even unto the day. Just as Apostle John in Rev. Ch.1 on seeing Jesus in the Glory fell before Him as dead, it would take His Coming, the second coming of Christ, in the "folding" before Him away from the unbeliefs to the belief not just to the land of St.Thomas but to every fallen away land on the face of the earth.

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