II Sunday of Easter

(Divine Mercy Sunday)

Fr James McTavish, FMVD

Wounded healers

Today is the second Sunday of Easter and also the Feast of Divine mercy. This is the newest feast in the Church’s calendar having been introduced by Pope John Paul II in the year 2000. It is a celebration of the mercy of God. The best definition of mercy I have come across is by the Jesuit moral theologian called Jim Keenan - mercy is “to enter into the chaos of another.” Once I met a Vietnamese sister in Philippines. She had just come back from visiting the women’s prison. She had been delivering some Vietnamese food she had made for a prisoner there. It turns out that the prisoner had cheated her in foreign currency changing, not once but twice! The first time the Sister thought that maybe it was her error. After the second time the money changer was discovered cheating others and thrown into prison. The Vietnamese sister was still visiting her in the prison. She felt compassion for the dishonest money changer. Why? Because the money changer had been cheating people to earn more money to pay for the medicine of her baby who had leukaemia. As the Word of God reminds us “mercy triumphs over judgement.”

When Jesus appeared to Sr Faustina, the polish nun who experienced the divine mercy revelations, he said to her “my mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.” In the gospel today (Jn 20, 19-31) the Risen Christ reveals his mercy to the disciples. When he appeared he could have remonstrated them for being unfaithful, he could have chastised them for being cowards, he could have scolded them for betraying him at the foot of the cross. Instead he shows his mercy. He says to them “Peace be with you.” In every mass we remember this in the sign of peace. He shows them his hands and his side and then repeats again “Peace be with you.” One sign of the presence of the Risen Christ is this peace that the world cannot give. It is seen in the lives of martyrs who can even manage to go to their death with a kind of peace that this world cannot give. I think of the peace exhibited by Maximilian Kolbe, after being starved in a starvation bunker by the Nazis, he is said to have shown such peace and tranquillity even when he was put to death by lethal injection. It is the same type of peace we can experience in everyday life when we are criticised but feel peace as we have tried to do the will of God.

It is interesting to note that his disciples are behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jews. Thomas was not with them at that time and refuses to believe. We call him “doubting Thomas” but later he will make a wonderful profession of faith “my Lord and my God!” when Jesus shows him his hands and his side. The expression “my God!” caught my attention in prayer. It reminds me of the joke of the 4 mothers arguing about who’s son was the greatest. One was boasting that her son was a priest and that in the streets the people shouted “Father!” The second said her son was a Bishop and cried out “my Lord!” The third said that her son was a Cardinal and people cried out “Your eminence!” The last mum said “That is nothing. My son weighs over 300 pounds. When he walks in the street the people shout ‘my God!’” What actually is it that makes me recognize the presence of God?

What convinced Thomas was Jesus asking him to place his fingers in the nail holes and his hand in the pierced side. Answering exactly to the request of Thomas the week before. How great that we too can express our wants and desires to God too! What is the meaning of the wounds of the Risen Christ? Well Christ does not come back anatomically perfect or “physically healed.” His wounds are still there. It reminds us that the body of Christ still suffers today and that the living Christ is still wounded. We can see that around us in wars, violence, brokenness and many other manifestations of the wounds of Christ. But Christ is not only the wounded patient but he is also the good Doctor. There is no wound that cannot be healed by the medicine of his merciful love. He has the remedy! Whenever we see the wounds in the world of today we must not forget to go to the Good Doctor and ask for the remedy.

Each one of us too is called to be vessels and channels of his mercy for the world of today. Sometimes we feel more wounded than healers! Once in a mass a young Eucharistic minister gave the body of Christ to a depressed man who told the minister that after mass he would kill himself. The minister came into the sacristy visibly shaken. The priest who was advising another person told the minister to go and listen to the person. The minister said he would have difficulty as he was also a bit depressed of late. He went and half an hour later came back beaming. “I was really able to help him because I knew a bit how he felt!” he said joyfully. The priest said to him “Never forget that we are all wounded healers ... wounded healers.”

Let us enjoy this Divine Mercy Sunday, receiving the medicine of the mercy of God to soothe all our wounds and heal our brokenness. May Jesus the Good Doctor teach us how to share his merciful love to many. And may we not shirk or withdraw in fear at the task of healing given to us. May our weakness not frighten us – we are after all wounded healers. Amen.