We are all in need of God’s Divine Mercy. Following the revelation of the Divine Mercy devotion by Jesus to Sr. Faustina, Pope John Paul II declared the Second Sunday of Easter to be Divine Mercy Sunday (cf. my article “God’s Gift of Mercy”).
Jesus is our Savior. Jesus reveals Divine Mercy to us as He endures his Passion and willingly gives his life for us on the Cross.
Forgiveness is a key part of mercy but God is also mercy in caring for us in other ways.
Jesus knew that after his Crucifixion that his disciples were afraid for “for fear of the Jews.” Thus, He came to them in the locked room. He did this to relieve their fears. He did this to reveal the Resurrection to them. “He showed them his hands and his side” so that they would know that He is the same Jesus who died for them on the Cross.
Thomas was not there. When the other disciples tell him that Jesus had “stood in their midst,” Thomas did not believe them. Jesus could have rejected Thomas for his doubt but He did not. Thomas had faith. He did not doubt that Jesus was the Son of God. Thomas’ only doubt was that Jesus had appeared to the disciples. No one had ever risen from the grave before, let alone appeared to others. Thomas doubted because he didn’t understand. Jesus made himself known to Thomas in his doubt.
Someone might like to ask, “Then why doesn’t Jesus appear to me when I doubt?”.
While Jesus does not appear to us as He did to his disciples after the Resurrection, that does not mean that He doesn’t make his presence known to us. God is merciful to all of us. Think of a time of distress in your life. Did you pray to God for help? If your prayers were not answered in the way you wanted, did you lose faith? Or did you continue to believe? I think that our continued belief in times of distress is a sign that God is present with us even if we are unaware of it.
God is merciful. While our faith may waver, God does not condemn us. In Divine Mercy, He is right there at our side. As Peter writes, it is God “who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,” We “may have to suffer through various trials” but our perseverance in those trials comes from God’s Divine Mercy and shows the “genuineness” of our faith.
It is in faith that we make God the “cornerstone” of our life.
What does it mean to make God the “cornerstone” of our life?
It is not enough to show up at Mass once in a while. Jesus says, ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (see Matthew 7:21-23).
If we genuinely wish to make God the cornerstone of our lives, then we need to follow the example of the first disciples. “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.” When the first disciples did this, “every day the Lord added to their number.” When we follow Jesus, others see our faith and come to follow Jesus for themselves.
We need to follow the teachings God offers us in His Word through Moses, the prophets, and the Apostles. We need to follow his teachings revealed to the Church through the Holy Spirit. When we fall short, we trust in the forgiveness of God’s Divine Mercy.
We need to live the communal life. This does not mean that all of us are called to live in poverty. The Church teaches that private property is permissible as long as we are willingly to share what we have with others in need (see my article, “The Right to Private Property and Loving Our Neighbor”).
The “breaking of bread” is what we know as the the celebration of the Eucharist. It is something we are called to do each Sunday (see my recent series, The Greatest Gift: The Eucharist to understand all that God offers us in the Eucharist.
And, of course, we need to pray. Prayer is not just giving God our list of requests. Prayer involves opening ourselves to God (see my series, Giving Our Hearts to God: What It Means to Pray).
Peace,
Fr. Jeff