16 April 2023 – Divine Mercy Sunday (2nd Sunday of Easter) (Year A)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, the Gospel and the readings of today invites us to ponder into the depths of mercy of God in our lives.

And the depths of mercy of God in our life is how He, as God, comes into our sinful situation, becomes wounded for the sins of humanity and through His wounds, we are healed, we are restored to life once again.

And that is why, dear friends, that immense love and the mercy that the Father has for you and I comes from His invitation that He loves us. That He comes into our human condition expressing the wounds of the crucifixion, the nails that pierce His hands and the lance that pierced His sides. And through t.at wounds, He is able to bring out that mercy and the love of God to us.

And how do we express that love towards one another? It is because when we are able to open our hearts to embrace that love, acknowledge that love, then we are able to become testimony of that love towards one another.

And that is why the last line of today’s Gospel reading says:-

There are many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing this you may have life with Him.

You and I, dear friends, are given this invitation to open our hearts to the Lord. Even at times when our minds are closed, our lives are closed, our doors are closed to the mercy of God, the Lord continues to invite again and again and again and speaks words that comes from Him.

And He says: Peace be with you.

If we look at the resurrection account, dear friends, we had Mary going to the tomb and heard about the story of the resurrection. We had heard of the story of the Road to Emmaus where the disciples were not able to acknowledge or see who Jesus was, was walking together with them. And when they went back to Jerusalem, in the Upper Room, even though the doors were closed, the Lord enters into those moments of their life, in their brokenness, in the situations that is closed and opens His heart to them.

And when we do that, dear friends, when we open our heart to the mercy of God, when we open our heart to the grace of God in our lives, then we are able to stir the passion, to inspire others so that we too can become believers in the resurrection.

And as we become believers in the resurrection, in the First Reading of today, it says how the whole community was so involved with the teaching of the apostles by the breaking of bread to prayer and fellowship. So the sense of community is drawn from that mercy that God is resurrected. The light of resurrection shines in our lives. And how it comes about is through the forgiveness of sin.

And in any families, dear friends, any community, there will be situations that we close our doors to one another. But the Lord invites us to enter into those times. To have a heart that forgives, to have a heart that is open to one another.

And as we celebrate Autism Awareness Month, we come to realise as well how the early church was able to identify that Jesus did not exclude anyone. Each one of us are differently-abled. Each one of us are differently wired but we need to remind ourselves that even though we have struggled to accept:-
Jesus appeared to Mary, a woman;
Jesus appeared to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus; and
Jesus appeared to the disciples together, also in that closed door, to the disciples.

Because the love that Jesus had for all of them is the same. He was able to accept each and every for their own limited understanding, for their own level of faith. And after accepting them as His disciples, He included them into His mission.

And as he includes them in His mission, He teaches them, He allows them to express themselves, to ask questions, to remove the doubt perhaps that they may be facing and even though they doubted, He still accepts them into His mission. And after accepting them into His mission, he encourages them and sent the Holy Spirit in today’s Gospel. He says:-

Accept the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you have forgiven, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.

He says: As the Father sent me, I am sending you.

And here we see, dear friends, the acceptance of God in our human condition, the inclusion of God in His mission and the encouragement of God in the way we move forward. And these three words, dear friends, accept, inclusion and encouragement is what the support group of our inspiration in the parish has for itself.

As we celebrate Autism Awareness Month, we see how each and every one of us are a gift towards one another. How each and everyone of us are people who are graced by God, we are differently-abled, differently wired perhaps, with different gifts and talents. But each one of us are deeply loved with the immense love of God. And that is God’s mercy.

Like the Doubting Thomas, He did not exclude him but included him and allowed Himself to be appeared to him. Secondly, He was able to include them into His mission in the same way that we need to open our hearts to include one another in the mission of the church.

Each one of us are complementing one another. Each one of us with our own gifts and talents can do our part in building this community, in growing into God’s awareness of the mission that He has entrusted to us.

And even though we are different, even though we are differently gifted, we can encourage one another. Because the Holy Spirit, dear friends, is a spirit of inclusivity and a spirit of unity. And as we embark on this journey, of this path towards synodality, we need to remind ourselves that each one of us are participants in this mission that the Lord has entrusted to us.

And now we will have a short video for about 5 minutes of so where we come to understand what is autism and how we as people of faith can encourage each and every one of us to be participant in this mission that Christ has entrusted to the church.

As we come to experience the immense mercy and the love of God in our lives, especially in the divine mercy which calls us to being inclusive, to be united. And as we look, as we watch that video, to see how we as ambassadors of mercy can be agents of prayer towards those families who are struggling with having children who are having autism, especially the support system that comes together with it.

And I also ask you to call to mind those of whom you know whether in the family, in the community who are having autism, in one spectrum or the other. And we pray that each and every one of them may be graced by the love and the mercy of God. And that our community too may have the openness of heart and mind to embrace them as part of one community, as part of one church.

Click below to listen to the homily and watch the video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 16 April 2023