This Sunday is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday. With it’s Gospel speaking of human doubt as well as the belief that Jesus asks of us, Divine Mercy Sunday is well placed.
Why do we emulate the thoughts and deeds of Thomas? It is because we are frail. Humanity encapsulates all of the beauty of what God created, and this includes vulnerability, frailty and the doubt which Thomas showed. Jesus said: ‘Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.‘ and in so doing, he speaks to us, now, as much as he did to Thomas. Our strength is not our own but God’s, and we are invited to ask – all day, each day – for this strength of faith. How often do we strive for this grace? How often, in this world of post truth, of blame and hatred? Faith is becoming a rare thing, not only in terms of Christian faith, but regarding the faith of life-long love, of giving each other love rather than hate. Those who follow Christ may be seen as weak, as frail. But this could be no further from the truth. We are people of love and in that we are strong. In him is our strength.
Let us, as was taught the disciple Thomas, reach away from our own human frailty and seek Christ in faith. Let us learn through Jesus’s mercy that we are his chosen ones. Let us, as we touch the wounds of Christ through the Sacraments, say: ‘My Lord and my God.’
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John 20:19-31
Glory to you, O Lord
In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them,
‘Peace be with you’,
and showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again,
‘Peace be with you.
‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’
After saying this he breathed on them and said:
‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’
Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
When the disciples said,
‘We have seen the Lord’,
he answered,
‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’
Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them.
‘Peace be with you’ he said.
Then he spoke to Thomas,
‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’
Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!‘
Jesus said to him:
‘You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.‘
There were 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 that believing this you may have life through his name.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.