2nd Sunday of Easter – (Divine Mercy Sunday)
Sunday 3rd April 2016
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe – John 20:19-31
‘O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in you’.
For as Jesus slept the sleep of death on the cross and the soldier pierced his side with a lance, piercing Jesus’ heart and Mary’s soul too, there gushed forth blood and water from his side and the Holy Church of Christ was born. From Adam’s side, God formed Eve and from Jesus’ side God formed the Church.
So what is the Church of Christ? Well to put it correctly the Church of Christ is not a what, but who rather. And who is this who? Jesus, and you and me, and all his members, baptised into his one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The water that gushed forth from the heart of Jesus is associated with the water of our baptism into Christ. The blood that gushed forth from the heart of Jesus is associated with the Eucharist. Through our Baptism, we become members of the Church of Christ and we are also inserted into the mysteries of Christ. Christ is the head of the Church and we are the body, one body in Christ, making up the Church of Christ. Therefore when one of the members of Christ’s body is honoured, all members are honoured. And when one member of Christ’s body suffers, all members suffer.
In John’s Gospel today we see the beginning of the Church as a suffering Church. The disciple’s of Jesus had closed themselves into the room for fear that what had happened to Jesus was going to happen to them also. Fear had paralysed them to the point of closing themselves into the room. This is the opposite of what Jesus intended for his Church, a Church locking itself away from the world, fearing what the world thinks of it and what the world may do to it.
Jesus then came and stood among his disciples and said ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’ The disciples were then filled with joy because of the peace that Jesus gives. A peace the world cannot give. A peace that everyone longs and hopes for. As the priest standing in Personae Christi, in the person of Christ, proclaims when he celebrates the holy Mass ‘The peace of the Lord be with you always’ A peace that changes darkness into light, sadness into joy, fear into courage, doubt into hope, negativity into positivism, the peace of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the head of the Church, sending forth you and me, the body of the Church, out into the world, to proclaim the good news whether the world believes or not. Jesus gave the promise of happiness to those who do believe when he said to Thomas: ‘You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
Fr. Noel Weir