Homily, Divine Mercy Sunday 2025
From The Pastor
The second Sunday of Easter is an optimal time to celebrate Mercy Sunday. Mercy is on full display in all its animation, motivation, and inspiration realized in the presence of the risen Lord. Mercy is the love of God in action that heals, restores, and animates the lives of those who embrace its truth. The journey to a full and surrendered trust in the risen Lord can be a long and rough road through many bouts of doubt and fear. The tension and reality of these human emotions confirms for us that Divine mercy is not simply a concept of the bible or a detached theology. Mercy is realized and experienced in the person of the Lord Jesus; the Divine God now risen from the dead. Mercy is personally experienced in human encounters in need of healing and forgiveness.
The disciples of Jesus are in a time of crisis and loss. Huddled in the fear and shock through the devastating loss of Jesus on the Cross has them hiding behind locked doors. The image is a visceral one that each of us can readily feel and empathize with. These men and women, so full of hope and promise in the person and the power of Jesus, can hardly imagine the death he endured. Now they feel not only the trauma of his death, but also the loss of his presence, friendship, and love.
The image in this upper room is very real and personal to these early disciples. It is also a universal image of humanity seeking the surety and stability of faith in times of crisis and uncertainty. A life that is not secure in faith does not know how to find the Lord for help. A person without faith does not have a foundation to stand on in uncertain times. Life without faith becomes a series of futile attempts to find meaning and security in times of anxious disorder.
These early disciples are going through the purifying fire of coming to a mature and living faith in the Lord Jesus risen from the dead. Jesus comes and stands among them, saying: “Peace be with you.” It is a stunning moment. Unbelievable, astonishing, and joyful. They see Jesus in the flesh in his resurrected form. Everything is different. The moment is transforming. Fear and doubt have vanished, as joy rushes to the surface.
The anxious fear, trauma, and doubt are soon transformed into a blessed awakening and animation of a new way of life. Jesus is not present only to resolve the trauma of the Cross. He is present to initiate a new way of knowing and living in the action of Divine Mercy. The image of the Upper Room is not only for the first disciples, but for believers of every age. In the gospel of John, this is the moment of Pentecost.
Similar too his Baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus commissions and sends forth the Twelve, and every other disciple in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit we are made a new creation. This is the action of our new creation mirroring God’s action of breathing the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam and Eve making us spiritual beings. Freed from the old life of sin, through the dying and rising of Jesus, these disciples and believers of every generation are now a new creation in the power of the risen Lord.
Freed from fear and restored to hope, Jesus says to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. The sins you forgive are forgiven; the sins you retain are retained.” This is the action and the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Spirit is the power of the risen Lord who has defeated the separation caused by sin. Now forgiven, we are given the power and the commission to forgive others. This is the animation, motivation, and inspiration of our new life given in the risen Christ. Endowed and consecrated with the Spirit of Jesus, our call is to continue the work he had begun. Imagine how animated and motivated the first disciples must have been to realize not only that they have been forgiven, absolved, and completely accepted by Jesus, but also to have the inner identity and personal authority to forgive others.
The grace to forgive sin is the gift of love given in the Holy Spirit. Forgiving love is expressed and exercised as mercy. It does not happen on the surface. Forgiveness is hard and often costly. Negative emotions of loss and hurt are not easily resolved. Forgiveness is a decision deeper than the surface tensions of hurt feelings or emotions. The love through which mercy flows comes from the heart. The heart of the mature believer knows this because they have accepted and embraced the mercy of the risen Lord. Anyone who accepts this truth with confident hope in heaven will know that true forgiveness comes from that inner place where Jesus dwells in us.
Doubt and resistance will always be part of this story. It is the human way. Thomas needs proof. He wants to see and feel the wounds of Jesus before he will believe. Jesus welcomes, even insists that Thomas does a full inspection. “Put your finger here and see my hands, bring your hand and put it into my side.” In that awkward moment Thomas surrenders doubt as he responds, “My Lord and my God.” Resistance is a waste of time. Mercy is always present, always needed, and always readily given. Put aside fear and doubt for the risen One who is alive and well, present in you through the Holy Spirit. Peace be with you. In Christ, your sins are forgiven.
Father John Esper
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