Homily given at St. Ann's in Ancaster on the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)
Gospel: John 20:19-31
Fr. Adam Voisin's Stuff
Homily for Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)
The first half of today's gospel takes place on the day of the resurrection itself. The evening of that first Easter day. Jesus rose from the dead early in the morning. He was seen by the women at the tomb who also saw the empty tomb. He's made that little journey with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And now it's evening. This is his first encounter with his apostles, his very first encountered. It's important to realize that to understand this is really important, right? He's going to do something important being his first time with them. He comes and he stands in their midst and he says, "Peace be with you." You can imagine how comforting those words would be after the terror that they've just experienced. They've seen such incredible brutality unleashed upon him. They've seen him tortured. They've seen him die. They'd seen him mocked and beaten, etc. They're terrified of the authorities, both Romans, the Jews. They're hiding. They're locked in a room. They're afraid. And it's there that Jesus comes to them and says, "Peace be with you." These beautiful words that have echoed through all of history in the church's prayers, in the liturgies. We hear it in the Mass. We hear it in so many liturgies in the church's prayer's peace be with you. No matter what we experience, no matter what terrifies us, whether it be the circumstances we face in our lives, perhaps at this time in our life, perhaps its interior, perhaps its discouragement in our spiritual life, perhaps its doubt, whatever it may be, the Lord enters into our hearts no matter where we're at and says those same words to us, "Peace be with you." If we're at a moment in our life and we're not experiencing his peace, something's going wrong. We need to ask him again, "Lord, give me that peace. I know you want me to have that. I'm not experiencing it. Help me to experience it. Give me that peace. Open my heart that I may receive it." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced because now they know this is the Lord. We see proof. We see the marks in his hands, the mark in his side. And again, Jesus says, "Peace be with you." And here's the commissioning, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." We can ask the question, "Well, how has the Father sent him? How is he sending them? What does he mean by that? What does he mean by I'm sending you just as the Father sent me?" Well, why did the Father send Jesus? What was the whole purpose? He was sent to the world to reconcile the world to the Father. That's the mission of Jesus Christ, to reconcile all of humanity, all of sinful humanity to God the Father, to restore our friendship with God. And he did that through the passion and his death and resurrection. He reconciled the world to the Father. So as the Father sent him, so he's sending the apostles with that same mission to reconcile the world to the Father. That's their mission to continue the work of Jesus Christ on earth. In fact, that very word apostle comes from the Greek, the one sent. Jesus is the apostle, right? Because he is the one sent by God. Now he's sending his own apostles. They are now the ones sent. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he did this, when he had said this, he did something very unusual. He breathed on that kind of an odd thing to do, isn't it? What is he doing? Why did he do that? It's not a gesture we're accustomed to. It only happens two other times in the scriptures where God breathes onto someone or something. One is in Genesis. Way, way back, Genesis 2, you'll recall God breathed life into Adam. He gave him life by breathing on him. In Ezekiel, we have this very unusual event described where Ezekiel is looking over this valley of bones, dry, dusty bones, and he sees God breathe upon them, and he sees the bones restored to life. In both instances, God breathes to give life. When God breathes on someone, that which is dead, becomes alive. So what is he doing here? What is he doing with the apostles? He's breathing on them. He's giving them life. You see, that's what God wants for us. Right earlier in John's Gospel, we're told Jesus says, "I came that you may have life and have it in abundance." At the end of today's Gospel passage, John tells us that not everything could be written, but these things are written, that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief, you may have life in his name. Life is what God wants us to have. We are dead. We begin dead in sin. We are given life that we may experience friendship and reconciliation with God and that we may experience eternal life with him. So he's breathed on these apostles. He's given them life, but remember, they've been given the same mission as him. He's sending them, as he himself has been sent, to also give life to the world. The apostles continue the work of Jesus in the world. So he says, he breathes on them, gives them life that they may give it to others, and then he says, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Now, maybe we've heard this Gospel a lot, right? We've heard it many times. So we're used to what he says. We're kind of habituated to the things Jesus says, and they don't strike us as odd and peculiar as maybe they should. "Receive the Holy Spirit." Imagine all of the things that would have made sense for Jesus to say after saying that. It would have made sense for him to say, "Receive the Holy Spirit who will empower you to preach the Gospel to the nations." He could have said, "Receive the Holy Spirit who will empower you to gather all of humanity into my family." Or, "Receive the Holy Spirit who will give you the power to preside over liturgical celebrations, or establish Knights of Columbus, or CWL, or do social justice." He could have given us the Holy Spirit to do all of those things, and he does give us the Holy Spirit to do all of those things. But above all, he gives us the Holy Spirit, well, he gives to the Apostles the Holy Spirit for another purpose. "Receive the Holy Spirit who sins you forgive are forgiven them, who sins you retain are retained." Remember, this is Jesus' first encounter with his apostles. So, you can imagine that the first thing he says to them is probably pretty important, right? "Receive the Holy Spirit who sins you forgiven, who sins you retain are retained." You see, this is the whole purpose of everything that happened over the last three days in the Gospel. This is the whole purpose for which Jesus came, for which he suffered, for which he died, and rose again. That we may have our sins forgiven, that we may be reconciled to God the Father, that we may experience new life on earth and eternal life with God in heaven. So, the forgiveness of our sins is the very purpose of the whole Easter celebration. The Apostles received this power from the Lord. They knew they wouldn't live forever. Jesus knew they wouldn't live forever. Many of them died younger than usual because most of them were martyred. But before being martyred, they entrusted this power, this authority to forgive sins, to their successors, the bishops. We see that already happening in the New Testament. Through the gesture of the laying on of hands, they give this authority to their successors. The bishops all through history have received this authority. Our former pastor, Father Dan Meme, will receive this authority in a new way on May 7th as he has made a bishop in the line, going all the way back to the Apostles. The bishops entrust this power to those who cooperate with them, the priests, who forgive sins. We now call it the sacrament of confession or reconciliation. It's there that we're reconciled with God the Father. Listen to these words. The words of absolution, some of the most beautiful words in the treasury of the church's prayers in our liturgy. They're words that I had the pleasure of hearing last night as I myself went to confession to a brother, priests, and heard him say these words to me. Keeping in mind the gospel we've just heard all of this. Listen to these words. God, the Father of mercies, it's odd that it's in the plural. It is in the Latin, as it is in English. God, the Father of mercies. It's not some abstract concept of mercy, but it's particular mercy. It's every time we come to him to receive it, he gives us his mercy anew again as often as we come. God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. You can hear the illusions to today's gospel, can't you? That God, the Father of mercies, this whole work of reconciliation, happens through the Holy Spirit who's been sent for the forgiveness of sins. Friends, today is Divine Mercy Sunday. It's a day on which we really celebrate in a special way God's immense treasure of mercy that as often as we come to him, he forgives us. He reconciles us. As often as we avail ourselves with a contrite heart of his forgiveness. He never grows tired of forgiving us. He never gets impatient with us, but he continues to forgive us as often as we come. And we can have great trust in that, great trust in his mercy for us and his love.