Scripture Reflections for Second Sunday of Easter, Sunday of Divine Mercy

“We see how those who seem to be the most vulnerable among us lift us up to a stronger, fuller faith.”

“we don’t take time to appreciate how much we have in fact learned from other people, and how that is not only an inevitable thing, but actually a good thing”

“Hidden wounds do not heal. Can we offer these to God, allow ourselves to be touched, to experience mercy, to offer mercy?”

“Let us not only remember and give thanks for those people in our lives who, like Mary, remind us to love and serve the weakest and most forgotten, but also let us consider how we can love the forgotten and unloved in our own lives”

“A key consequence of Christian belief is asking for forgiveness from God and our neighbours, and in turn, offering that forgiveness to those who offend against us”

“these marks remain, to be reminded that the resurrection does not wipe away the crucifixion but completes it, as Christ has not come back unharmed to this life, but rather has gone forward, indelibly marked with the signs of his self-giving love, into the new kind of life that began with his resurrection”

“If only we realized just how astonishing the resurrection is, we might spend more time thinking about it. Not since the dawn of creation has anything so significant happened.”

“just as with the ugliness of Christ on the Cross, so is the ugliness of our lives. But in all my faults and sin – I believe that Jesus will be there beyond that threshold, showing me, showing all of us that believe in Him that He is real and that Heaven is real, that eternal life is real, and that His Divine Mercy is real.”

“it is because God has freely given the gift of faith – something we have not earnt and never could – that we are able to profess Christ’s resurrection”

“sometimes we need to witness with our own eyes both the miracles and the sins to direct our hearts and strengthen our faith to walk the path towards justice that Jesus called us to follow...these signs of hope and suffering can give us the encouragement to know that God is present.”

“Divine Mercy is the outpouring energy of our suffering Messiah. This is God’s way of battling injustice. Our world is transformed through the power of suffering love and mercy.”

“What matters is not how much or how strongly we believe but that we do believe. It matters that we remember those times when God has been present to us, revealing that there is more to life than betrayal, war, violence, hatred, greed, selfishness and power-seeking.”

“Abraham, our father in faith, answered God’s call, and travelled with hope of the promise God had given him, that he would become the father of many nations. The Church travels in hope with the promise of everlasting life with God.”

“Thomas was not a man who was lacking in courage or commitment to his Lord...He questioned in order that he might understand and believe. And once he understood, his surrender to the truth was total: ‘My Lord and my God’.”

“We do not touch Christ’s pierced hands, but in baptism Christ himself acts, and he touches us with his pierced hands. In baptism we receive the grace of true faith, which makes our belief in the Lord reasonable.”

“Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us to form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit”

“So there is a hidden irony in this passage. Thomas refuses to be touched by what his fellow disciples recount but still wants to touch the living Christ. He shuts his ears to the truth and yet, in a way his own words testify that he eagerly yearns to believe.”

“Is our faith, then, really faith in other people, as fallible as ourselves (so we might think) and a good deal less educated? Actually, no. Our faith is in God alone: faith is assent to God and trust in him.”

“Eternal life is a depth of knowing and loving, in which we dwell in God and God dwells in us. It is to know God just as God so completely and perfectly knows himself. It is to love God just as God so completely and perfectly loves himself.”

“Peace puts an end to fear, peace puts an end to anger about the present and anxiety about the future, peace reassures us of God’s love and friendship”

“the peace of Christ is something alive and active, something liberating and dynamic...it does not grant us an immunity to pain and suffering, or even death, rather it enables us to face all these painful realities and triumph over them in union with the victory of Christ himself”

“Faith isn’t meant to stay in our intellects. It is meant to translate into atonement (being as one) with God–which requires I do my best every day to match God’s nature and ways.”

“there is no better way to vehicle the mission of salvation to the world than bringing humanity together (peace) to experience the forgiving mercy of God (salvation) made possible through the action of the Holy Spirit.”

“Embrace of Christ and his claims always has required an act of faith, both for Thomas and for us. Christ gave him helps for his faith—but he gives us helps, too. Let’s not make excuses; let’s make the good confession.”

“Jesus comes to us. Rarely, it might be directly through a locked door, but most often, in times like these, Jesus comes to us through the community...Jesus is coming to us in the flesh, in a clear, tangible way. We just have to be open enough to see it.”

“If our faith were to depend on seeing Christ, how difficult it would be for us. But is our faith not that much stronger, precisely because we have not yet seen him, but still believe?”

“Jesus comes to where his disciples are hiding in fear from evil, wherever that is, wherever evil has closed in on us, where sin has closed each of us in upon ourselves. He comes as liberator with the Spirit’s gifts of peace, forgiveness, and faith”

“To create faith, the Spirit works in a mind that is searching for truth, and is willing to accept it and submit to it. But the Spirit also uses the witness of the believing community to create faith.”