DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY (2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER)

(Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 118(117); 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31)

Theme: The Fruits of Adam’s Happy Fault

After the first man’s fall, our nature grew old in sin, suffering, and death. But after our Lord Jesus’s resurrection, it was raised, redeemed, restored, and purified, enabling us to receive the grace of holiness and to seek the power to overcome natural and human calamities.

In other words, having been redeemed by the Blood of our Lord Jesus and born anew through the Spirit, we were enthroned by grace and given the powers to withstand calamities. As St. Peter reminds us in the second reading, we have received the breath of living hope, which empowers us to pursue an imperishable and undefiled inheritance, kept in heaven for members of God’s new community, who, led by faith, seek ultimate salvation.

Thus, first, the breath of the Resurrection re-established God’s community, where humanity is reconciled and modelled on Christ’s purity. A new community of men and women, directed by God’s Spirit and safeguarded by the Church's messages of faith in Christ Jesus for the salvation that existed before the fall of man. Thus, we have been made dead to sin and alive to God in Christ; we can boldly call God our Father and can overcome human calamities.

Secondly, by the power of the sacrament of new life, we can now walk by faith. The Apostle Thomas thought it impossible, but after touching our Lord’s transformed body, he affirmed God’s power. In other words, as members of the new Spirit-led community, we are animated by faith to believe that whatever is not yet realised today is sure and certain to come to pass by the power of God’s Spirit.

Our faith is rooted in enduring mercy, marvellous courage, outstanding trust, and redeeming hope in God, whose glory will erase – without a doubt – our uncertainties and challenges. Let us not hesitate to invoke the Lord of mercy, who did not condemn his fleeing disciples but called them brothers and granted them the spirit of peace.

Like Thomas, some of us doubt God’s power amid the calamities of our time, but we must never forget that our faith in the Lord is the beginning of great things to come, and that the one who can penetrate locked doors is sure to lead us to our thrones of eternal light, truth, success, and happiness. As He did with Thomas, we must never stop asking the Lord for our own day of mercy, courage, and revival of faith.