2nd Sunday of Easter - God's Great Love and Mercy

 It's quite late, but here's my homily for Divine Mercy Sunday.  Comments are always welcome.  God bless you!

Location: Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier (Dyersville, IA) – 5 p.m. Sat., 8:30 & 10:30 a.m. Sun.

Date: Sunday April 27^th, 2014 (2^nd Sunday of Easter, Year A – aka Divine Mercy Sunday)

READINGS:

1^st Reading: Acts 2:42-47

Resp. Psalm: Ps. 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24

2^nd Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Gospel: John 20:19-31

FOCUS: God’s great love and mercy makes everything we’re celebrating this weekend possible. 

FUNCTION: Have recourse to the sacrament of mercy when you fall into sin. 

          There is a lot happening today – we observe today as Divine Mercy Sunday; Beckman has prom (tonight); we are celebrating First Holy Communion for our 2^nd graders; and this weekend Pope Francis will also canonize two modern popes: Blessed John Paul II and Blessed John XXIII.  We have a lot to celebrate.

          But how do they all connect?  It’s all about God’s great love and mercy.  That’s why a school like Beckman Catholic exists which enables students to go to Prom; that’s why Jesus gave Himself to us as the Bread of Life and the Chalice of salvation in Holy Communion at the Last Supper; that’s why we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday and the revelation of merciful love by Jesus to St. Faustina; and that’s why two Popes were inspired to live a life of heroic virtue and holiness.  God’s great love and mercy is the reason we’re here today.

          First of all, God’s great love – it was love that led God to create humanity; and after humanity’s fall from grace, it was love that led God to give humanity a Savior in the person of His only Son, Jesus our Lord; it was love that led Jesus to suffer and die on the cross and be raised to life again on the third day; and it was love that led Jesus to form the Church and send that Church forth to proclaim the good news of the Gospel and the promise of new life in Christ.  Love created us, Love redeems us, and Love sustains us. 

          Secondly, God’s great mercy – because God knew that we could not repay the debt that we would accrue because of our sin, God had mercy on us.  God instructed the Jews in the beginning to offer various sacrifices in atonement for sin; but knowing that the blood of bulls and lambs could never take away sin, God offered a sacrifice that only He could provide – the sacrifice of His only Son.  Jesus suffered and died and rose again so that we might experience the forgiveness of sins and the joy of eternal life; His death on the cross paid the price of our sin.  While He was on earth, He exercised a ministry of mercy; and before He ascended to the Father, He entrusted to His disciples the new ministry of mercy – they were given authority, by the Holy Spirit, to forgive sins and to reconcile people to God and to each other. 

          We see Jesus doing that very thing in today’s Gospel – “…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.’”  Jesus gives the authority to forgive sins to His disciples; He Himself had and exercised that authority during His earthly ministry; and after His resurrection, He entrusted His disciples to do the same; this is the biblical origin of the sacrament of reconciliation.  We confess our sins to a priest because Jesus gave the authority to forgive sins to His disciples, who transmitted that same authority to their successors, the Bishops, who likewise shared that authority with their co-workers, the priests.  It all goes back to the words and actions of Jesus Himself. 

          The sacrament of reconciliation is vitally important in today’s world as a source of grace and healing for God’s people; our 2^nd graders celebrated their first reconciliation last year in preparation for receiving their First Holy Communion today; our students at Beckman (and our other area Catholic schools) go to confession at least twice a year in Advent and Lent in order to be prepared to celebrate the solemnities of Christmas and Easter.  The sacrament of penance and reconciliation cleanses us of our sins and helps us experience the grace of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross; it is the sacrament of conversion by which we try to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. 

          Jesus entrusted that great sacrament to the Church so that we might become saints by experiencing spiritual conversion and growth in grace.  Ss. John Paul II and John XXIII weren’t born Saints; they were made Saints by their cooperation with God’s grace; they sought to live a life focused on God, because they knew that only God would satisfy them; and so they continually turned from the many false pleasures and dark allurements of the world and, with God’s help, worked hard to be faithful to the message of the Gospel.  They are Saints because they were faithful, and because they knew Jesus. 

          Today’s Gospel also gives us the story of “doubting Thomas,” who also proved to be an incredible man of faith; after He experienced the risen Lord, He said one of the most remarkable acclamations of faith in the whole New Testament – “My Lord and my God!” 

          And we can have that kind of faith, too, but we have to allow ourselves to believe in more than what we can see and touch.  We believe that Jesus is really and truly present in the sacrament of the Eucharist; but we can only know that by the gift of faith.  To our eyes, it looks like bread and wine.  But when we look at the Eucharist with eyes of faith, we see that it is so much more – it is the very Body and Blood of Jesus, who seeks to reconcile us with God and with each other.  After St. Thomas’ incredible acclamation of faith, Jesus says to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

          That can be us!  But it all starts with recognizing God’s great love and mercy.  God wants to make us Saints.  He wants us to become men and women of heroic virtue and authentic holiness.  How does that happen?

          Jesus shows us – we should live as His disciples and follow where He leads; we should practice what He taught; we should love God with our whole being and love our neighbors as ourselves; we should approach the sacrament of penance and reconciliation whenever we fall into sin; and we should look to the example of the Saints who have gone before us and imitate their faith. 

          May we be strengthened by the intercession of the Church’s new Saints, John Paul II and John XXIII, to live as disciples of Jesus, the Risen Lord.