2nd Sunday of Easter
Sergott’s Sidelines
This 2nd Sunday of Easter, is also known as Mercy Sunday, presents God’s compassion to us as forgiveness and peace in the gospel. This message takes on a powerful message of mercy, especially to those who are struggling with one’s own sinfulness. Hence, God’s compassion is unlimited for all of those who seek help, no matter how great the sin is when they repent.
God wants us to know that we need to put our trust in Him so we can receive His forgiveness. God want us to approach him in prayer, humbly repenting from our sins and asking for the outpouring of his mercy upon us. If we want God to help us and bring us peace, then we need to allow Him to be part of our lives.
After Christ rose from the dead, He visited the apostles in the locked room. However, it took time for Thomas, to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Doubt and fear make it difficult for one to believe the wonders that God has worked by resurrecting Christ. So, we need to expel the spirit of doubt and fear from our lives in order to experience the power of the Risen Lord. In other words, we need to be witnesses to the Lord through our words and actions.
The gospel this weekend has two unique traits that many people have great difficulty to accept: (1) forgiveness of sins through repentance and (2) experiencing the Lord within the Christian community. In other words, those people who do not worship Christ together and nor repent will not experience God’s presence, forgiveness, peace or spiritual protection. Such people have made a conscious choice to exclude God from their lives.
Being away from the Christian community will only cause doubt, fear and restlessness, as it did with Thomas and isolation from God himself, because being part of the Christian community is where we experience the Lord in our lives. Returning to the community, with the support of fellow Christians, we can grow in faith in Jesus Christ.
As Jesus greets his disciples with the gift of the Holy Spirit, he commissions them to continue the work he had begun. Jesus’ words to his disciples also highlights the integral connection between the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Church continues Jesus’ ministry of forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation.
It is God who shows mercy upon those who seek it, through sincerity of heart, consciously living a life of repentance and humbleness. Hence, it is the repentant sinner who experiences forgiveness, mercy, compassion and love! Open your heart to Jesus and let him in! Let him heal you! Let him touch you! Let him forgive you. Accept His mercy for you! Until next time, see you in church!
Fr. Larry