Today we celebrate the great mercy of God – the first Sunday of Easter, Divine
Mercy Sunday. I can’t think of anything that exemplifies God’s Mercy more than the
saving power given to us through the Resurrection.

The Word of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, took on flesh. His
parents named him Jesus – which means God saves. He lived among us, suffered,
died and rose on the third day. God came, suffered, died, and rose to save us.
Divine Mercy.

His mercy is a gift – it is a gift. A gift is something given, and received.
St. John wrote, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Let’s consider the Gospel passage for today, also from John.

The post Resurrection appearance of Jesus to the 10 – Thomas was absent and they
hadn’t replaced Judas yet. Jesus appeared to them as they hid – somehow entering
the room even though the door was locked. The first thing he said, “Peace be with
you.” Before he was taken captive Jesus told the same men that it was his desire that,
“…in me you may have peace.”

It’s fitting that he greeted them in the room by saying “Peace be with you” – because
his peace is part of his gift of mercy.

Thomas missed Jesus’s appearance in that room, and when his friends told him
about it he didn’t believe them.

That’s important for us – I think – because even though only Thomas is saddled with
the moniker, “Doubter,” the truth is everyone doubted at first if they hadn’t seen
Jesus with their own eyes. If you go through the other Gospels the ones who see him
go and tell others that they did. The first reaction of those who didn’t see for
themselves is disbelief. Thomas’s suggestion that he would only believe if he sees
and touches Jesus and his wounds for himself is understandable, because it’s pretty
much everyone’s reaction.

When Jesus reappeared a week later – Thomas saw and believed.

John emphasized Jesus’s body in these two appearances – something he did a lot.
He was trying to share the Good News of the Lord’s life on earth and of his
Resurrection in a way that would be an antidote to a religious and philosophical
error of the time.

That particular view of the world and view of salvation emphasized a freeing of the
spirit from the material – especially from the human body.

So salvation meant something like the spirit finally being sprung or released from
the body to return to a spiritual light of some kind – or to a comfort or peace or
place it would be free from the shackles of the physical world forever.

That is definitely inconsistent with the Resurrection accounts. It is not what we
believe, because it is not what happens. In fact we confess in the Creed our belief in
the resurrection of the body, and of the life of the world to come.

John’s Gospel is full of examples that emphasize the physical reality of Jesus before
and after his death. He pretty much begins his Gospel narrative describing Jesus as
the Word, made flesh. Let’s think of a few examples, just from John’s Gospel that
really emphasizes the real, physical body of Jesus.

Think of how he sat on the side of the well, tired from walking, and asked the
woman there for a drink.

Think of the whole presentation in John 6 in which Jesus repeats that eating his flesh
and drinking his blood leads to eternal life.

Think of how he scribbled on the ground with his finger during his interaction with
the woman caught in adultery and her accusers.

Think of how Jesus spit on the ground and made clay which he anointed the blind
man’s eyes with.

Think of how he wept at the tomb of his friend.

Think of how he washed his disciples’ feet.

Think of how he was tied up when he was arrested, and led away. All the Gospels of
course relay that he was scourged. And of course they all describe that he was
crucified.

John’s is the only Gospel that described how Jesus was stabbed in his side.

John’s is the only Gospel that shares this story about Jesus’s visit with Thomas.

Later John alone described the disciples along the Sea of Galilee having breakfast
with the Risen Jesus next to a fire.

Now, please understand that each of the examples I’ve shared has as an element of it
some of the divine as well. John doesn’t neglect Christ’s divinity but he wants us to
know – Jesus had a body. He had a body. He rose in a Glorified body. He appeared in
his Glorified body, and as we heard today, his hands and side showed his wounds.
It’s all Thomas needed to know. And we shouldn’t begrudge him that reaction of
doubt. After all, Jesus rose and appeared periodically to some – not all. The
appearances were meaningful. They increased the faith of his disciples – and as they
shared the stories – filled with the Holy Spirit, the appearances increased the faith of
others as well – as they heard what others saw.

Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.

Another thing John does beautifully is to share some of Jesus’s prayers and blessings
on the Church – on the faithful. We could say prayers and blessings on people in the
future, but to him there is no future, no past. He entered into time – he had a body –
but he is not bound by it. As we heard in our second reading, Jesus is the first and
the last. As we prayed at the vigil, he is the beginning and the end.

And so a statement like, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe” is
intended for all who will come to believe – hopefully that means you, and me.
Jesus is praying for us here – he’s blessing us and even more – he is extending to us
the gift the Father sent us – which is Christ himself.

This is Divine Mercy. It’s an extension of a prayer he prayed earlier in John’s Gospel
when he was praying for the Church. He’d just finished praying for his apostles then
he said, “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through
their word…” (That’s us). He’s praying to the Father, “The Glory which you have
given me I have given to them.” He goes on, “Father I desire that they also,
whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which
you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world.”
This is John 17 and it is absolutely remarkable to have these words, these prayers,
this display of love – and mercy.

Jesus rose, and appeared in Glory so that we could be with him in Glory. Divine
Mercy. If we approach the Gospel one Sunday passage at time, it can make the story
hard to follow – hard to believe. But when we consider the whole story –
culminating in the Resurrection, we can experience Jesus more like the people who
knew him. And at first, we may react like they all did, “I don’t believe it.” But we have
their testimony, their word - and his prayers.

“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their
word…”

Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.