Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: Acts 4:32-35 – The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 117(118):2-4,15-18,22-24 – Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Second Reading: :1 John 5:1-6 – Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has already overcome the world.

Gospel: John 20:19-31 – Eight days later, Jesus came again and stood among them.

The second Sunday of Easter has been celebrated as the Feast of the Divine Mercy since the year 2000 when St. Pope John Paul II established it as such. In previous years, we tried to give a brief history of the evolution of this feast starting from the private revelations that Sr. Faustina Kowalska was said to have had from Jesus. Without repeating what had already been dealt with previously, we should just emphasize that the whole Easter events of suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus are practical demonstrations of the mercy of God towards humankind. It is therefore fitting that this feast is celebrated within the octave of Easter when each day of the octave is regarded as “Easter day”.

The first reading from Acts of the Apostles chapter 4 describes the lifestyle of the nascent Christian community as fulfilling the Hellenistic ideal of friendship expressed in sharing possessions. Thus, the early Christian community embodied the ideal Israel where nobody was in want because of centralized distribution and redistribution of resources. However, this “ideal Israel” did not last forever as we can read in chapter 6 of the same Acts of the Apostles that the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of resources. In other words, they felt that they were being left out or treated as second-class citizens. Of course, as we know, this led to a solution crafted by the apostles in which deacons were selected to oversee the daily distribution. What is important, though, is that in spite of the tension and complaint, the community was still united heart and soul. Unity, therefore, does not necessarily mean absence of tension. There could be tension and still dialogue can take place. The essential thing is to reach an understanding at the end of such dialogue. The modern Christian communities cannot replicate the nascent community’s life of communalism when there were only a handful of members in total. The world has become much more sophisticated than it was then. And the period of “honeymoon” that the early Christians enjoyed is long over. But the present-day Christians can still learn from the early community how to place individual talents at the service of the community. We can still learn to find harmony from discord, as Albert Einstein’s three rules of work suggested: “Out of clutter find simplicity. From discord find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.

The Gospel describes how the disciples locked themselves up in the Cenacle in the evening of the resurrection day – the first day of the week. Apparently there were confusion and uncertainty among them. Their leader, Jesus, has been murdered; and they feared for their lives too. There was apparent hostility towards them not only from the authorities but also from the people as well. It was in the midst of that uncertainty and confusion that Jesus appeared to them and gave them the greatest gift they needed in that moment namely, peace. That sentence, “Peace be with you” summarizes the Divine Mercy we are celebrating today. Jesus could have been angry with his disciples for betraying him and deserting him when he needed them most. But he chose to have mercy on them and instead, gave them the gift of peace. He would go on to give them the gift of the Holy Spirit as well as the power to forgive sins; but he knew that these other gifts would not be fully realized if they had no peace. And for the benefit of Thomas who was absent during the first appearance, and who was finding it hard to make sense of what others were telling him concerning Jesus’ appearance, he reappeared the following week and bestowed on them the gift of peace once more. Thomas, having witnessed the extraordinary event, went on to confess his faith.

In the world of today, if there is anything we need more than any other thing else, it is peace. Unfortunately, in the scale of preference of most world leaders, peace is not as important as power, wealth and domination. Everybody claims to be right from their own point of view and seek to pursue “justice” by punishing others they believe are wrong. Everybody claims to be a victim while looking on others as the guilty ones who must be vanquished. This type of attitude has been a major cause of discord in a world that desperately needs peace. But thanks to today’s liturgy, Jesus has given us a way forward in our quest for peace. If God extended his mercy on humankind by giving his Son into the hands of death, and if Jesus showed mercy to his betrayers by bestowing on them the gift of peace, then it goes to show, as Einstein puts it that, “we must be prepared to make the same heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war”. The major cause of rift both in the church and in the larger world is the question, “who is right and who is wrong?” People are so preoccupied with trying to find out who is right and who is wrong that they totally forget that all are in need of mercy. The disciples expected Jesus to focus on the question of right and wrong; but he completely redirected them to issue of peace. One can be right without being at peace; and one can be unwittingly wrong and still be at peace because the person is blissfully ignorant of the fact that he/she has wronged someone. If you are asked to make a choice, which will you choose – to be right or to be at peace?

As we celebrate the Divine Mercy, let us strive to attain peace not by triumphantly proclaiming that we are right and others are wrong, but by acknowledging that we are all in need of God’s mercy. It is God’s mercy that will give us peace not the conquest of our perceived enemies.