Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 Jn 5:1-6
Jn 20:19-31
The readings for this Sunday are about God’s mercy, the necessity for trusting Faith and our need for the forgiveness of our sins. In the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 118), we repeat several times, “His mercy endures forever!” God revealed His mercy, first and foremost, in sending His only begotten Son to become our Savior and Lord through His suffering, death and Resurrection. God’s Mercy is given to us also in each celebration of the Sacraments, instituted to sanctify us.
The First Reading stresses the corporal acts of mercy practiced by the early Christian community before the Jews and the Romans started persecuting them. Practicing the sharing love, compassion and the mercy of God as Jesus taught, this witnessing community derived its strength from community prayer, “the Breaking of the Bread” and the apostles’ teaching read at the worship service.
In the Second Reading, John, after focusing on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, reminds us that we practice spiritual works of mercy by obeying God’s Commandments given in the Old Testament and especially Jesus’ Commandment of loving others as He loves us with selfless, sacrificial, agape love (charity). Loving others as Jesus loves us also demands that we treat others with God’s mercy and compassion.
Today’s Gospel vividly reminds us of how Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a sacrament of Divine Mercy. The Risen Lord gave His apostles the power to forgive sins with the words, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20:19-23). Presenting the doubting Thomas’ famous profession of Faith, “My Lord and my God,” the Gospel illustrates how Jesus showed His mercy to the doubting apostle and emphasizes the importance of Faith.
Today’s Gospel vividly reminds us of how Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a sacrament of Divine Mercy. The Risen Lord gave His apostles the power to forgive sins with the words, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20:19-23). Presenting the doubting Thomas’ famous profession of Faith, “My Lord and my God,” the Gospel illustrates how Jesus showed His mercy to the doubting apostle and emphasizes the importance of Faith
Let us ask God for the Faith that culminates in self-surrender to God and that leads us to serve those we encounter with love. Living faith enables us to see the risen Lord in everyone and gives us the willingness to render to each one our loving service.
The spiritual Fathers prescribe the following traditional means to grow in the living and dynamic faith of St. Thomas the Apostle:
- We must come to know Jesus personally and intimately by our daily and meditative reading of the Bible.
- Next, we must strengthen our Faith through our personal and community prayer.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta put it this way: “If we pray, we will believe; if we believe, we will love; if we love, we will serve. Only then we put our love of God into action."