Jesus, I Trust in You

John 20:19-31

On the evening of tht 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 has 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 may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have new life in his name.

Today, April 27, 2025, is Divine Mercy Sunday. Here is my homily:

St Teresa of Avila, the great Carmelite reformer and mystic, was praying in the chapel of her community’s monastery when she received a vision of the Jesus. After contemplating the vision for some time, she finally shouted, “Begone Satan!” Immediately, the vision of Jesus dissipated and before her stood Satan himself. Satan asked her, “How did you know it wasn’t really Jesus?” Teresa replied, “No wounds! No wounds!” You see, the father of lies had appeared before her as the image of Jesus, but without the wounds in His hands, feet, or side. So, Teresa knew it wasn’t really Jesus.

Why did Satan appear as Jesus without wounds? Because that is the Jesus Satan wants us to worship and adore. That is the Jesus Satan wants us to follow: the Jesus with no wounds; the Jesus who did not suffer for us and, consequently, does not demand anything of us, does not require our obedience, does not expect our adoration, the Jesus who promises that we will not have to suffer in our lives dedicated to Him, because He did not suffer in His life dedicated to us. The Jesus who says, “Sure, be a Christian, but don’t get weird about it! Don’t make commitments in my Name, and don’t make sacrifices for my sake, because I didn’t make any for you. Look! No wounds!

But Jesus did suffer. He did make sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of Himself. That is why the Jesus without wounds is a lie, and the promise that we will not have to suffer if we follow Him is also a lie. The Jesus without wounds expects nothing from us. The Jesus with wounds expects everything, all that we have, all that we are.

Why did Jesus keep His wounds after the resurrection? It is clear from the Gospel accounts that, after the resurrection, Jesus possessed a glorified body, so that His disciples initially did not recognize Him. Jesus kept His wounds to confirm in the hearts and minds of His disciples that it was Him, and that He had truly risen from the dead. Because Jesus kept His wounds, like St. Teresa of Avila, the disciples were able to recognize Him risen from the dead. When St. Thomas saw Jesus for himself and Jesus showed him His wounds, St. Thomas proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus kept His wounds also to “convince those redeemed by His blood” – that is, you and me – “how mercifully [we] have been helped, as He exposes before [us] the traces of [His] death.” Jesus’ wounds are meant as a reminder to us of God’s great mercy toward us and of our mission to take up our crosses and unite them with His.

Today, of course, is Divine Mercy Sunday. Pope St. John Paul the Great set aside this Sunday, the Sunday after Easter Sunday every year, to reflect on the great mercy God shows us in the life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Alienated from God because of the disobedience of Adam, God desired to be reconciled with us because He loves us. But there is also justice, and justice demanded that we make amends for the offense against God caused by our disobedience. But how could we, finite and stained with sin, make amends for our offense to an infinite, immutable God? We could not.

So, God in His mercy sent His Son, Jesus, fully God and fully human, to redeem us. Because Jesus is infinite God, His sacrifice made amends for an infinite offense. Because Jesus is human, His sacrifice of perfect obedience even onto death counts against Adam’s act of disobedience.

We too are called to live a life of perfect obedience to the will of the Father in imitation of Jesus, and to offer that life to the Father in union with that of Jesus for the salvation of the world. But obedience requires sacrifice, and sacrifice requires suffering. This is what it means to “Take up your cross and follow me!”

The sufferings we endure, whatever they may be, can be redeemed, can be given purpose. By uniting our sufferings with those of Jesus, we can participate in the redemptive work of Jesus. Our crosses, united with His, can be instruments by which we, our loved ones, and even the whole world are redeemed.

But that is not the end of the story. Jesus “humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.” Just as Jesus was raised to glory because of His life lived in perfect obedience, even to death on a cross, so we will be raised to glory to share in the very nature of God, if we unite our sufferings with those of Jesus.

St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote way back in the fourth century that, “God became man so that man might become God.” At every Mass, when the priest or deacon prepares the chalice, when he mixes the water with the wine, he says, “Lord, by the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.” This process of divinization, where we come to share in the nature of God, is called theosis, literally “becoming divine.” Just like Jesus, we will be raised to glory. Just like Jesus, our bodies will be glorified. If we share in His sufferings, we will share in His glory. That is the promise of Jesus. And Jesus keeps His promises.

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