Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 16, 2023
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 may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
My namesake wasn’t in the Upper Room that day, and he refused to believe. Then Jesus returned and went right up to him. “Here. Touch me. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe!”
Imagine Thomas’ shock. Imagine his guilt. He had denied the Lord and scoffed at his friends’ faith. After all his time with Jesus, after all the miracles and drama and changed lives that he’d witnessed, Thomas abandoned the faith. He had disgraced himself, and now truth itself was staring him in the face.
Humiliated, he fell to his knees. But then, filled with the Holy Spirit, he identified Jesus for all time and all peoples with the boldest statement of belief since Peter’s confession of faith: “My Lord and my God!”
I lost faith as well during my time studying at Notre Dame. College is when many young people must transition from borrowing their parents’ faith to adopting it as their own. Mine didn’t go smoothly, and anxiety, aimlessness, and misspent energy marked my next years.
But then I turned back. The confessional and tabernacle became my friends. From my knees I would finally cry out, “My Lord and my God!”—and soon I had eyes to see. And over time, by God’s grace, all my dreams came true.
Divine Mercy Sunday is a great day to consider the mercy that our Lord showed to doubting Thomas. It’s the same mercy he offers us. Doctor of the Church Fr. Robert Bellarmine once said that our faith is often “of that lower kind that will only believe when the senses bear witness to some invisible power of God working in the visible world.”
Let us ask for the grace to have a higher faith in things unseen, to walk by faith and not by sight.
Prayer
Jesus, you are merciful, compassionate, and understand our human weakness. You know our fears—the things that hold us back from trusting you and from becoming fully ourselves—but you won’t let us use those things as an excuse. There is always a challenge to grow, and with the challenge comes the grace to meet it. Thank you for caring so much about us. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Divine Mercy Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, is a feast dedicated to opening ourselves up to God's mercy.
Devotion to Christ's divine mercy began with the visions of St. Faustina Kowalska. In 1930, while Faustina was praying in her room, Jesus appeared to her wearing a white robe with red and white rays emanating from his heart. He told her to have his image painted with these words inscribed below: "Jesus, I trust in you," in Polish: "Jezu, ufam Tobie." Jesus expressed his desire for a feast of Mercy to be established and for increased devotion to his abundant Divine Mercy.
Faustina began taking spiritual direction from the convent’s confessor, Fr. Michał Sopoćko, a professor of theology at Vilnius University. When Faustina told Fr. Michał of her visions, he recommended she be examined by a psychologist. After a number of tests, Faustina was declared to be of sound mind. Fr. Michał told Faustina to begin keeping a record of the visions and helped her find an artist to paint the image Jesus had requested.
In a later vision, Faustina recorded a series of prayers—the Chaplet of Divine Mercy—to be used in the devotion to the Divine Mercy. She wrote that the prayers served three purposes: to obtain mercy, to trust in Jesus’ mercy, and to show mercy to others.
Devotion to Divine Mercy spread quickly in popularity throughout the 1930s. In 1936, Faustina became critically ill with tuberculosis. As the disease slowly conquered her body, Faustina suffered intensely for several years. Her visions persisted, until she finally died on October 5, 1938, at the age of thirty-three.
After her death, the Vatican initiated an official inquiry into Faustina's visions and diary, led by the Polish theologian Ignacy Rozycki. Faustina’s visions were approved as authentic and her diary was published first in Polish in 1981, lauded as "a document of Catholic mysticism of exceptional worth, not only for the Church in Poland, but also for the Universal Church."
Devotion to the Divine Mercy was a source of strength for the Polish people who suffered greatly in World War II. In 1958, Pope Pius XII blessed the image of Jesus that Faustina had commissioned to be painted. In 1965, Archbishop Karol Wojtyla of Krakow initiated the review process of Faustina’s life and visions for canonization. When Archbishop Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II in 1978, he sped up the canonization process significantly: Faustina was beatified in 1993, and canonized in 2000.
As part of the canonization of Faustina, Pope John Paul II also declared the second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday. As Christ, in Faustina's visions, had expressed his desire for that feast to celebrated.
"On that day, the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain the complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet."
DIARY, 669
Today, we ask for God's mercy for ourselves, that we might be streams of God's mercy for others.
On this Divine Mercy Sunday, have mercy on us, O Lord, and on the whole world!
Closing Prayer of Divine Mercy Chaplet
Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless, and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase your mercy in us, that, in difficult moments we might not despair, nor become despondent, but, with great confidence, submit ourselves to your holy will, which is love and mercy itself. Amen.