{"id":6166,"date":"2021-04-11T11:58:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T15:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=6166"},"modified":"2021-04-11T11:58:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T15:58:57","slug":"2nd-sunday-of-easter-year-b-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/2nd-sunday-of-easter-year-b-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Sunday of Easter, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2nd<\/sup> Sunday of Easter, Year B<\/a>
Acts 4:32-35
Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 (1)
1 John 5:1-6
John 20:19-31
April 11, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this Second Sunday of Easter we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.  In today\u2019s gospel Jesus gives the power to forgive sins to the disciples when He says, \u201cWhose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus wants to forgive us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus could have been angry with his disciples when they abandoned him in his Passion.  He could have abandoned them but He does not.  He forgives them in his mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we celebrate the Divine Mercy of God, we should note that God\u2019s mercy is more than just forgiveness.  Forgiveness is very important.  It is what Jesus comes to offer on the Cross.  However, his mercy does not end with forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knows how his disciples are feeling following his Passion.  He knows they have hidden behind locked doors for \u201cfear of the Jews.<\/em>\u201d  They fear the Jews will do to them what they did to Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus knows their fears and waste no time in coming to them.  On the very day of his Resurrection He comes to them in the locked room.  He does this with mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He came and \u201cstood in their midst and said to them, \u201cPeace be with you.<\/em>\u201d  He knows they are confused by his Crucifixion and the news of the empty tomb.  So, He \u201cstood in their midst<\/em>\u201d so they could begin to understand the Resurrection.  \u201cHe showed them his hands and his side.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing their distress, He says to them, a second time, \u201cPeace be with you.<\/em>\u201d  His peace is not a magic release from earthly distress but it helps us through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He does all this with mercy.  God is mercy<\/em><\/strong>.  Jesus does the same for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Apostle was not there that day, Thomas.  When the others told him that Jesus had come to them resurrected, he doubts it saying he will not believe unless he sees Jesus for himself and can touch him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would we do any different?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one had risen before.  It sounded strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Jesus give up on Thomas because of his doubt?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No.  That would not be merciful.  Instead, a week later Jesus returns to his disciples.  This time Thomas was there.  Jesus greets them all with \u201cPeace be with you.<\/em>\u201d  Then, He speaks directly to Thomas.  He wants to help Thomas in his unbelief.  He invites Thomas to touch his wounds so that Thomas would know without a doubt that He is the same Jesus who was crucified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas responds, \u201cMy Lord and my God!<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus showed Thomas mercy.  Thomas responded in faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus shows you mercy.  What is your response?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you take his mercy for granted?  Do you allow yourself to continue in sin without any effort to change?  Jesus wants to forgive you.  In mercy, He also wants to help you become better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our response to God\u2019s mercy should be to love God.  Here I turn to the words from John in our second reading, \u201cFor the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments.  And his commandments are not burdensome.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even God\u2019s commandments are based on his mercy.  The commandments are not a burden.  They are an aid.  They guide us to live a good life.  It is in mercy that God directs us to what is good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, our response to God\u2019s mercy is love God.  We are also called to love one another.  We see this in our first reading, \u201cThe community <\/strong>of believers was of one heart and mind.<\/strong><\/em>\u201d  <\/strong>They were not just a bunch of individuals believing on their own.  They came together as a \u201ccommunity.\u201d  They became of \u201cone heart and mind<\/em>\u201d but the \u201cone\u201d was not one human\u2019s heart and mind but that of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were there for one another because God was there for them.  God treated them with mercy and they did the same to others.  \u201cThere was no needy person among them<\/em>\u201d for they shared everything in common, distributing what each one needed.  We are not talking about socialism.  We are talking about faith.  We are talking about mercy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2nd Sunday of Easter, Year BActs 4:32-35Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 (1)1 John 5:1-6John 20:19-31April 11, 2021 On this Second Sunday of Easter we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.  In today\u2019s gospel Jesus gives the power to forgive sins to the disciples when He says, \u201cWhose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘2nd Sunday of Easter, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,82,150],"tags":[431],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-1Bs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6166"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6168,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6166\/revisions\/6168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}