John 20:19-31

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you many come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

Today, April 7, is Divine Mercy Sunday.

From 1925 until her death in 1938, Sr. Faustina Kowalska, OLM (Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy) was privileged with regular visions and conversations with our Lord. She was directed to keep a diary of these visions and conversations by her spiritual director, which became the source of her book Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Also under the direction of her spiritual director, Sr. Faustina commissioned a painting of her vision of Jesus, dressed in white, with His right hand upheld as in giving a blessing, and two streams of light emerging from His heart, one red and the other blue. At the base of the painting were the words, “Jesus, I trust in you.”

Unfortunately, because of a faulty interpretation of Sr. Faustina’s writing from Polish into French or Italian, the Holy Office issued a 1959 notification banning “images and writings that promote devotion to Divine Mercy in the forms proposed by Sister Faustina” (emphasis in the original). The ban remained in place until 1978, when better translations and more information inspired the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to rescind the ban. Even with the ban in place, however, devotion to the Divine Mercy spread rapidly across the globe. In 1955, the Congregation of the Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ, Merciful Redeemer was founded for the purpose of spreading devotion to the Divine Mercy, and in 1956, Venerable Pope Pius XII blessed an image of the Divine Mercy in Rome. Sr. Faustina was beatified and then canonized by her fellow Pole, Pope St. John Paul the Great. John Paul also declared the Second Sunday of Easter Divine Mercy Sunday. In 2005, John Paul II died on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday.

Today’s Gospel reveals the mercy of God. Jesus gives authority to forgive sins to His disciples. This is an amazing, wonderful authority! Because the Church has authority to forgive sins, we are not left abandoned in our sins. The sacrament of Reconciliation is given to the Church for the purpose of pouring out the grace of God’s mercy, won for us by Jesus on the cross and through the Resurrection, on those who confess their sins. It is Jesus who forgives us through the priest as His instrument of mercy. Hebrews 8:12 reads, “I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more.” Because God is eternal, when He chooses to forget our sins, not only are they forgiven, but it is as if they never existed in the first place. We are renewed yet again by the power of Christ through the authority He gave to the Church to forgive sins.

There is the story of a young religious sister who declared to her Mother Superior that she had seen a vision of Jesus. To test the vision, Mother Superior directed the young nun to ask the vision of Jesus what was the worst sin that Mother Superior had ever committed. The obedient young sister did so. Then she went back to her Mother Superior to inform her of what Jesus had said.

“Well,” Mother Superior asked, “Did you ask this supposed vision of our Lord what was the worst sin I have ever committed, as I instructed you?”

“Oh, yes, Mother. I did ask Him.”

“And what did He tell you?”

“He told me, ‘I forgot!'”

At that, the Mother Superior knew that the vision of Jesus was true.

There is, indeed, a wideness in God’s mercy. That wideness is available to us because of the love of the Holy Trinity for all. Let us embrace God’s mercy, put our faith in His promise of mercy, and live with confidence as children of God, co-heirs with Christ to the kingdom. May we never despair in our sins, but hurry to the Church where we will receive His mercy through the sacrament.

“Jesus, I trust in you!”

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.