07 April 2024 – Divine Mercy Sunday (Year B)

by Fr Fabian Dicom

I believe that all of you are in a relatively joyful and celebratory Easter mood. And I hope you had a good celebration.

On the other hand, the mood of the disciples in the Gospel this morning was quite the opposite. They were grieving, they were sad, they were afraid and confused. It may be quite difficult for you at this point to put yourself in the shoes of the disciples.

Now in the midst of all they were going through, Jesus appears. He has been appearing in all the Gospel readings from the day of Easter. And like every appearance account, it is Jesus who takes the initiative to encounter the disciples. He takes, he makes the first move. And it is like that with us as well.

As with all the appearance stories, the Risen Jesus is not immediately recognisable. So a gesture or word is needed before the disciples recognise the Risen Lord. Now this is quite a clever way of making the point the resurrection is not a return to earthly life. Jesus has risen to a new life beyond death. They could not really see it and then they see it. So he is the same yet transformed. And that is the Risen Lord we embrace….today. The transformed glorified Jesus.

Now he greets them: Peace be with you.

And this, as in all other greetings and encounters after the resurrection, indicates a very important point. It indicates the graciousness of forgiveness. Jesus demonstrated forgiveness to the disciples in a remarkable way, despite their abandonment of him in his moment of greatest need, his passion and his death. He was alone without the people he trusted most. Despite all that, Jesus greeted them with peace and showed no resentment, no accusation. Instead of confronting them about their actions, he offered them forgiveness and reconciliation.

Now this act of mercy where Jesus has no desire whatsoever to punish, to blame them, exemplifies God’s boundless love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. It is this profound display of forgiveness that inspires  the concept of the spirituality of the Divine Mercy Sunday, emphasising the ocean of mercy that flows from Jesus to all who seek it.

Incidentally, Fr FA brought to my attention this morning the news in the front page of The Star. That Malaysian Media Corporations and Civil Society Organisations are standing for racial unity and have collectively launched the campaign called: Maaf Zahir Batin Hari-Hari. Or known as #MZB365. 

This initiative aims to promote the practice of seeking and giving forgiveness among Malaysians throughout the year, extending beyond Hari Raya Aidil Fitri festivals. It is kind of the Year Of Mercy for all Malaysians. And I hope we contribute to that in wherever we are, our working place, our living place, whenever and wherever we are. Acknowledging that this teaching and value system is in all religious and indigenous communities in Malaysia, the organisers or the initiators of it exhort ALL Malaysians to make seeking and giving forgiveness an all year practice, not just limited to this season.

That is what we want as well. Not only all year…..all life.

Now going back to the room where Jesus meets all the disciples, we encounter God’s unconditional mercy and love. And that is meant for all of us as well. And the only, only response to God’s mercy is just this is to simply love God.

Here I turn to the words from John in our Second Reading:
For the love of God there is this, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.

Even God’s commandments are based on mercy. If you really look at the commandments, it is very merciful and it is only for our benefit. It does not benefit God or human thinking. It does not do anything for Him. It is for us. 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 do what is good. And so our response to God’s mercy is to love God, obviously, and (it comes in a whole package) to love our neighbour as ourselves.

And we ask how. Because we know and we continue to ask how and the First Reading tells us, gives us a wonderful idea of what this love is. As we have heard, the community of believers was one of one heart and mind. They were not just a bunch of individuals believing on their own. They came together as a community. They became of one heart. They became of one mind. But the one was not of human heart and human mind but that of God.

They were there for one another because God was there for them. God treated them with mercy and they did the same to others. There was no needy person among them. That is what we hear:
There was no needy person among them for they shared everything in common, distributing what each one needed.

And we are not talking about socialism. We are talking about faith, we are talking about mercy. We are talking about love, the way of Jesus.

Now the early Christian community took care of all the needs of each other. In the Reading, we may think it is only economic needs. They sold things, they got the money, they shared everything. But I am very sure they took care of each other, they took care of the poor, the sick, the specially abled, all physical, social, emotional, psychological and spiritual needs. They shared everything. They took care of everything. And this is the kind of community we are called to live. And perhaps we are doing it in some ways but again, we ask can we honestly say:
There is no needy person among us?

I just want to focus on three aspects: the family, the BEC and the parish. Of course, it goes beyond. This kind of living goes beyond into our society, into the universal church. But this morning, I just want to focus on our families, the BEC and our parish. Do I take care of the needs of those around me?

‘Yes’ and ‘No’ perhaps. Very specifically to those who are in ministry, if you are here. Or any form of service whether in the parish, or in the church or even in an NGO. Very specifically for us:
Does our ministry take care of the need of the people? In this case the parishioners?
Do everything I do take care of the need or does it take care of my need? 

Now the cry of this parish, consistently from last year, is there is a need to be inclusive. It is a need, as you say it. Is it falling on deaf ears or are we inclusive or are we trying to be inclusive in every aspect of our ministry, from the worship, from our liturgy, to formation, to outreach work?

What does it entail to live truly and fully in response to God’s unconditional mercy and love? This is the mercy and love, the vital and only ingredient to be our motivation to minister to everyone, to reach out to everyone, to live the way the Lord wants us to live.

For that, I invite you to go back to the Gospel and focus on Thomas. Now poor Thomas, branded forever with the adjective ‘doubting‘, in a story that scholars agree, strangely, is a creation of John the Evangelist. I don’t know what these two guys had with each other.

Anyway, Thomas is made to characterise the doubts, the skepticism and hesitation that plagued all of the early witnesses to the Risen Jesus, perhaps even ours. Popular interpretation puts him in a bad light. We have always heard this: Don’t be a doubting Thomas. This however is not the movement of the text which culminates in Thomas’ great act of faith, the most explicit in the New Testament:
My Lord and my God.
It came from here (heart). It did not come from here (head).

We are more in accord with the spirit of the text. Therefore, when we look at Thomas as a model of faith, he was right to insist that before he could believe in Jesus’ resurrection, he must see the holes the nail made in his hands, put his finger into the holes and his hands into the great wound made by the centurion’s lance. This is the crux of it, at least for me.

Thomas teaches us this important lesson that we must not separate the resurrection from the cross since we are all called to be followers of Jesus. He also teaches us the truth of the church and of our individual spiritual growth. We cannot live the life of grace, the risen life authentically unless we bear in our bodies the wounds of the cross.

We cannot live the life of grace, the risen life authentically unless we bear in our bodies the wounds of Jesus.
Now don’t think I am a sadist. You know I don’t mean the physical wounds. I don’t mean you have to pray for the stigmata.

What am I trying to say? 

It is a metaphor or I am just using that in a metaphorical sense. This means being conscious that we develop the capacity to love and to be loved only by dying to ourselves. By humbling ourselves, emptying us from everything that prevents us from loving as we are called to be, then the question will not arise: Who are we at service for? It will never be for us anymore.

Our wounds, the wounds that are here (heart) are also a constant reminder of how frail we are and our vulnerability and that it is in God’s grace that raises us up to new life. Personally I think this is liberation. It is liberation. Take me as I am, frail and wounded. With the wounds of your cross, transform me because you are transformed, and put me out there.

To embrace our wounds, my dear brothers and sisters, yet knowing God’s grace is ever, ever present, and in this process, die to ourselves so that we can love totally. We were like the disciples, forgiven, because of this ocean of mercy from the Lord. Constantly even before we asked. He takes the initiatives. And Jesus shows it very clearly. And our only response to that is love. Simple as that and yet challenging.

And in that love, not only a concept but to be lived out where our brothers and sisters have no more needs because we are there to provide for them. And how do we provide? What motivates us?

The resurrection and the cross. By bearing the wounds of the cross in a resurrected state. And that kind of love requires the total emptying of ourselves. And it is a life-long process. We pray for the grace of courage, of strength and perseverance to be able to do that every day of our lives.

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