OMELIE / Omelie EN

28 apr 2019

28/04/2019 – 2nd Sunday of Easter - C

28/04/2019 – 2^nd Sunday of Easter - C

Sunday of Divine Mercy or In Albis

Reading 1 ACTS 5,12-16 * Psalm 117 * Reading 2 REV 1,9-11.12-13.17.19 * Gospel JN 20,19-31

Jesus died and rose, but He is no longer visible to men in the ordinary way. However, the fruits of His presence are still alive among the people of the believers. He continues to heal the sick and to free people that are possessed by evil spirits: it is His simple presence, guaranteed by Peter’s shadow, to keep the faith in Him alive, so His merciful love is clearly still at work.

The number of the believers was growing in the city of Jerusalem, even if they were seen as strangers. “The people esteemed them”, says Saint Luke, but “none of the others dared to join them”. This behavior is strange. Nonetheless, this is what happens: we can admire those who believe and pray, but we keep our distance. There is need for a firm step, grown by each one in the depths of their heart, to show in a concrete way the faith in the Risen Jesus by joining His Church!

He remains always mysterious, even being a friend and a brother: like this is the vision told by John in the book of Revelations. He can see Him dressed like a Great Priest, encircled by the lampstands of the Temple. Jesus is the man in front of whom you would fall on the ground like you were in front of God. He is the one using the divine power to give life, resting His right hand on the head and saying words of eternity. Jesus has risen, he is the Living One. Everything that might scare us men is in His hands. And the scary things are many: sickness, weaknesses, consequences of sins and injustice, waves of violence and ignorance, ideologies spreading, habits involving disorder in families and many others. Jesus’ hand is still resting on us and His voice keeps saying firmly: “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives”.

John has seen and heard the Lord in His power “on the Lord's day”, the very day dedicated by He Himself to meet His own: it is in this day that His reassuring voice is heard! He keeps showing Himself where His disciples are gathered, like in the day of His resurrection.

The passage from the Gospel is telling us about the presence of the Risen Jesus among His own “a week later” “on the evening of that first day of the week”. His presence is spreading life: it is a presence of mercy for everybody, not only for the believers, a presence that every week wants to repeat the same joyful announcement.

This second Sunday of Easter is purposefully called ‘of Divine Mercy’: it is communicated to us that God’s mercy it is the reason for Jesus’ presence among the Apostles. By breathing on them the Spirit, He gives them the most beautiful and most precious gift and task: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them”. What is there more beautiful than this for us, who are sinners, to be able to obtain God’s forgiveness? The Apostles become today the tool of the Father’s mercy. To them, or to those anointed by them for this purpose, we will turn with humility, and we will get mercy.

We know that sometimes some Christians are reluctant to accept the way wisely set by the Church in order to get forgiveness. They would like to keep everything hidden inside themselves, not to tell anyone their sin, to ask for forgiveness to the Father only in the secret of their conscience, without following the instructions of the Son and of whoever the Son has sent. They cannot admit that God is wiser and knows also the psychological needs, in addition to the spiritual ones, of our life. Maybe it is because of this estrangement towards the confession of the sins that is growing also among Christians the need to go to psychologists and psychiatrists.

Today we are giving thanks to Jesus for His gift, for His mercy, even towards the struggle to believe shown by Thomas and often by us all the same. Looking at the hand of this incredulous disciple, a hand that is extended to touch the wound of the spear on Jesus’ side, we kneel down saying to Him with humility: “My Lord and my God”. And Jesus’ right hand will rest on our head: He is keeping us under His protection in order for our faith to be firm, grow and show itself with courage. By believing that Jesus is the Son of God we will have a new life, interior, we will be able to resist the temptations of selfishness and idolatry, we will have the strength to be merciful on our turn towards whom need to know that God is merciful towards them.