LENTEN REFLECTION

Message

We each and every one come from God’s loving heart. As God  has loved and forgiven us our  sins, so should we love  and forgive others.

Gospel Reading

19 When it was evening on that day, the  first day  of the week, and the  doors of the  house where the  disciples had met were locked for fear  of the  Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with  you.” 20 After  he  said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the  Lord.  21 Jesus said to  them again, “Peace be  with  you. As the Father has sent me, so  I send you.” 22 When he  had said this, he  breathed on them and said to  them, “Receive the  Holy  Spirit. 23 If you  forgive the  sins of any, they are  forgiven them; if you  retain the  sins of any, they are  retained.”

Jesus and Thomas

24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the  twelve, was not with  them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We  have seen the  Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the  mark of the  nails in his hands, and put my finger in the  mark of the  nails and my hand in his side, I will not  believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were again in  the  house, and Thomas was with them. Although the  doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be  with  you.” 27 Then he  said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my  hands. Reach out  your hand and put  it in my  side. Do not  doubt but  believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My  Lord  and my God!” 29 Jesus said to  him, “Have you  believed because you  have seen me? Blessed are  those who have not  seen and yet  have come to believe.”

The Purpose of This Book

30 Now  Jesus did many other signs in the  presence of his disciples, which are not  written in  this book. 31 But  these are  written so  that you  may come to believe that Jesus is the  Messiah, the  Son of God, and that through believing you  may have life in his name.

Each  one of us is God’s own idea. We come from God’s loving heart, spoken and breath into  being by God  Himself. Our human condition and tragedy do not  stop this immense love   of  God   for   us.   God’s  name  is  mercy,  as  Pope  Francis has  reminded  us. Notwithstanding the  number or  gravity of our  sins, God  forgives us  and loves us  for ever, each single day, every moment. On  this Sunday, God’s love  is especially poured out  into  our  hearts, when we  ask  forgiveness and go  to  Mass. Today is a  day  to  be overwhelmed with   joy  at  God’s  immense  love. The  Decree instituting Divine   Mercy Sunday of 5 May 2000,  explains that,

Merciful and gracious is the  Lord  (Ps  111:4),  who out  of the  great love  with which he  loved us  (Eph  2:4)  and with  unspeakable goodness, gave us  his Only-begotten Son  as  our   Redeemer,  so   that  through  the   Death  and Resurrection of this  Son he  might open the way  to eternal life for the  human race, and that the  adopted children who receive his mercy within his temple might lift up  his praise to  the  ends of the  earth. In our  times, the  Christian faithful in many parts of the world wish to praise that divine mercy in divine worship, particularly in the  celebration of the  Paschal Mystery, in which God’s loving kindness especially shines forth.

The  evening of the  first  day, when the  disciples are  in hiding in fear  (v.19),  reminds of the  our  first parents hiding in the  bush, after the  fall or the  sin, when God  comes out  for an evening walk with  them (Gn 3:8-10). Our Lord Jesus Christ now reconciles us to God. It is His initiative. He comes forward to us. He speaks peace into  our  hearts and our  lives. He gives us the  Holy Spiritly; twice, abundantly. He speaks and breathes the  Holy Spirit into  us,  giving us  new life (v.22). This first  day  of the  week, is the  first  day  of the  new creation, again harking back  to  the  first  day  of creation when the  Holy  Spirit hovered over the  waters (Gn  1:1-5).  All  of  creation is created anew under  the   new eternal covenant that Jesus worked on the  Cross, and sealed in His blood which He poured out from His body. Having forgiven us,  He now sends out  into  the whole world to heal each other and to forgive each other (vv.19-20).

In  His goodness,  God   has granted the  Church  the   Sacrament of  Reconciliation or

Confession to continue the  forgiving Ministry in an intimate and one-on-one basis, that

also  includes  helpful spiritual guidance. At  Confession,  the   Priest pronounces the absolution as follows:

God, the  Father of mercies, through the  Death and Resurrection of his  Son, has reconciled the  world to  himself and poured out  the  Holy  Spirit for  the forgiveness of sins; through the  ministry of the  Church, may God  grant you pardon and peace. And I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the  Son, + and of the  Holy Spirit.

At Mass, during the  Penitential Rite, the  Priest continues to give  the  general absolution, either speaking it or  through the  ritual of water sprinkling as the  Congregation sings Aspeges Me during Lent and Vidi Aquam during Easter, in contrition.

Our  Lord  couldn’t wait. He  appeared to  the  disciples that very  day  of  His resurrection. But Thomas didn’t seem that scared, for  he was out  and about, and missed seeing the  risen Jesus that first  day. He is a man of reason. He must see and touch the   actual wounds the   risen Lord;  only   then will  he  believe in  the resurrection. Our   Lord,   in  His great  love   and mercy, grants Thomas his wish; appears again and given him  a  guided tour of  His wounds.  Our  Lord  gives us second chances. Thomas saw and touched the  pierced hands and feet;  and the pierced side of our  Lord out  of which flowed blood and water representing baptism and the  sacraments (Jn 19:34-35), and presenting our  Lord as the  new Temple from which blood and water from the  sacrificed animals flowed; He is the  new presence of God  in our  midst. Out  of Thomas’s disbelief, we  have his eternal declaration of Jesus to  be  God:  “My  Lord  and my God” (v.28). The  Evangelist John wants us  to take  this  eyewitness testimony seriously.

And what is more, Jesus now addresses the  rest of us who were never there all those many years ago at His Passion, Death, Burial, and Resurrection: “Blessed are  those who have not  seen and yet have come to believe” (v.29). We are  blessed, we believe. John explains why  he wrote this astounding Gospel: “30  Now  Jesus did many other signs in  the  presence of  his disciples, which are  not  written in  this book. 31 But  these are  written so  that you  may come to  believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the   Son of  God, and that through believing you  may have life  in  his name.” (vv.30-31). The Gospels are  testimony, that we  may believe and have life in Jesus’s name.