OMELIE / Omelie EN

11 apr 2021

11/04/2021 – 2nd Sunday of Easter (of Divine Mercy) - year B

11/04/2021 – 2^nd Sunday of Easter (of Divine Mercy) - year B

Reading 1 ACTS 4,32-35 Psalm 117/118 Reading 2 1JN 5,1-6 Gospel JN 20,19-31

The fruit of the Easter of the Lord is a new reality, a new way to live for the people who have believed and have welcomed Jesus’ death and His presence as Risen as manifestation of God. In fact, the first reading is showing us the first community in Jerusalem: those who believe were behaving like brethren and they were taking this identity of theirs seriously, derived from the faith in Jesus. They were enjoying finding concrete ways to show this brotherhood, which was uniting them even more strongly than the family ties. They would even sell their own goods in order to take care of the needs of the poor in the community, so they were enjoying the Father’s mercy by becoming a tool of it. And the apostles were at the centre of every activity of theirs.

Certainly this passage is not given us only as a good read, but with it God wants to make something new happen in us too. Our Christian communities need to become aware again of themselves, to be renewed, to become a concrete and luminous testimony of Jesus' resurrection. This will not happen until each one of us will have given their full adhesion to Him. The Christians of Jerusalem in fact had received from above their awareness of community: it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that is given us when we believe in Jesus giving Him our life.

The second reading is helping us with this passage: the faith coming from the baptism and Jesus' blood is the victory which prevents the world from enslaving us. Very easily we are grounded at earth’s level, or better, relegated to satisfy the wims and desires of the men’s selfishness, afraid to be marginalised or mocked or not appreciated. We do not have strength, nor maybe wisdom, to be free to give, instead, testimony of a true love and of a decisive strive for the truth: these wisdom and strength we receive from faith.

Faith requires humility: Thomas, closed in his pride, is deprived of the joy and the new life that come from Jesus' resurrection. The pride prevents him from understanding the signs of Jesus' victory over death. Ten men, plus the women, have changed, are at peace and joyful. How so? Thomas is not satisfied with this strong evidence, he wants to see and touch with his own hands, because he is sure of himself, he trusts only his senses: but from the latter faith cannot be born. This comes from Above, when there is humility in us!

Faith is a gift from God. Jesus, gently rebuking Thomas, is telling us that we can believe without seeing, nay, exactly who believes trusting God, instead of counting on their abilities, are enjoying the bliss, receive so to speak the communion with God and with His Saints. When Thomas, kneeling, humbles himself and begins his path in the faith, is reached also by the words the Lord had already told the other disciples: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you!”.

In the moment of faith we get enriched by the grace Jesus has enriched and adorned His Church with. In the moment of the faith we begin taking part in the mission of the Church in the world and in its joy of being the place of the presence of the Risen Lord, the place from which He wants to reach everyone with His peace. The gift of faith is the mercy God grants Thomas, me and you and whoever kneels in front of Jesus.

The day in which Jesus has shown Thomas His mercy was still the first day of the week and the eighth in which Jesus risen has made Himself visible to His own, gathered in the upper room. With His presence He has blessed their being together and has sanctioned the day after the sabbath, reserving it to meet with him! We are continuing this weekly routine and we recognise this day as the day of our faith, the feast day for the risen Jesus’ presence in His Church. By resting, detaching from the burden of work and its worries, and living the joyful communion with the brethren in faith, we are anticipating a little bit of the beatitude of our goal, paradise. It is a day for joy. It is the day in which in our life the Father’s love, the communion with the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of Jesus’ cross shine. The Church, in its century-long experience, tells us faithful that is very important both not working and taking part in worship; if we were not doing it, we would not understand anymore what being a Christian means, we would distance ourselves from the community and we would lose any link with the gospel. The eighth day is the day of the Lord. In it we take part in the Eucharistic celebration, we organise ourselves in order to dedicate some time to lonely or suffering people, we care for the communion in the family and in the community, dedicating ourselves also to religious studies and prayer. In this way we become as well a tool of the Father’s mercy for His children.