Divine Mercy Sunday: Healing the Wounds of Our Disbelief

The Second Sunday of Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday in the Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar. The Gospel for the Liturgy (John 20: 19-31) recounts one of the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ to his disciples. The glorified Jesus appears to his disciples, coming through locked doors and says, "Peace be with you." He breathes upon them the Holy Spirit, creating them anew. He also communicates His authority to forgive sins to the Apostles who will continue His redemptive mission through the Church, which is His Mystical Body.

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Highlights

By Deacon Keith Fournier
4/18/2023 (1 year ago)

Published in Living Faith

Keywords: Divine Mercy Sunday, Easter, Doubting Thomas

However, Thomas was not present for this encounter. The Beloved disciple John records this exchange between the Risen Lord and Thomas: "Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." "Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

This encounter led to Thomas often being called "Doubting Thomas" by some. Yet the tradition tells us that this so-called "Doubting Thomas" died a martyr for his faith. He became a messenger of Mercy to India. He shed his own blood for the Master whom he encountered on that day. His insistence on touching the Holy Wounds presented the Disciple John another opportunity to explain for all of us the implications of the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I suggest that Thomas was not a doubter, rather, he was a strong believer. And he is a model for all of us at every Eucharist which is always the Feast of Mercy. Pope St Gregory the Great, who occupied the Chair of Peter between 590 and 604, preached a marvelous homily on this encounter between Thomas and the Risen Lord. In it he asked:

"What conclusion, dear brethren, do you come to? Surely it was not by chance that this chosen disciple was missing in the first place? Or that on his return he heard, that hearing he doubted, that doubting he touched, and that touching he believed? It was by divine dispensation and not by chance that things so fell out. The Mercy of God worked wonderfully, for when that doubting disciple touched his Masters wounded flesh he cured the wound of our disbelief. So this doubting disciple, who actually touched, became a witness to the reality of the resurrection."

We are to become witnesses to the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in our own time as well. Thomas touching the glorified wounds of the Risen Lord can also help us gain a deeper understanding how our own wounds can have a role in our conversion when we join them to the wounds of Jesus Christ.