Get out of your self confinement with the Divine Mercy

Acts 4:32-35, 1 Jn 5:1-6, Jn 20:19-31. On this Second Sunday of Easter also known as Divine Mercy Sunday, the Church invites us to embrace peace and enjoy the mercy of God. Today’s first reading presents the results of the peace and loving mercy of the first Christians, who took their gifts of peace seriously and abide by it. They devoted themselves to the way of Christ with three important activities: they were community of one mind and heart, they continue to reflect on the meaning of Jesus’ life, especially His resurrection and they mercifully shared their “wealth” with each other so that no one goes without. Each of these three activities deepens their relationship with the Risen Jesus and His Father. The way that they were of one mind and heart is in and through their unity with the Risen Lord who brought (and continues to bring peace and loving mercy to those who believe in Him. They have new life because Jesus, the Resurrection and Life, is alive and with them.

In today’s second reading, John speaks about how the people of peace live their lives, which demands that we be people who live out Jesus’ commands, to mercifully love those with whom we have imprisoned in our hearts. In the power of the Holy Spirit the disciples came to life and went out from their self-imposed prison, to bear witness to the risen Lord. Like the disciples, we can be tempted to give up on our faith journey. The will to self-preservation can prevent us from doing what we are capable of doing with the Lord’s help. The wounds we carry from earlier, failed initiatives make us hesitate to try again. Today’s Gospel suggests a way out of our self-imposed confinement. If Magdalene makes no impact on us, the Lord will find another way to enter our lives and fill us with new life and energy for His service. No locked doors, nor even locked hearts, can keep Him out. He finds a way to enter the space where we have chosen to retreat and He empowers us to resist what is holding us back. The risen Lord never ceases to recreate and renew us in His love. The Lord is prepared to stand with us on our ground, whatever that ground is and from there He will speak to us a word suited to our personal state of mind and heart. He takes Himself to where we are, wherever it is a place of fear or of doubt.

May this season of Easter be for us, the openness to receive the Lord’s coming into the concrete circumstances of our lives and like the Lord, we would receive others where they are, rather than where we would like them to be! Amen!! Good morning and happy Divine Mercy Sunday!!!