First Reading – Acts 2:42-47
©
Responsorial
Psalm 117(118):2-4, 13-15, 22-24 ©
Second Reading – 1 Peter
1:3-9 ©
Sequence
– Victimae Paschali Laudes
Gospel Acclamation – John
20:29
The Gospel According to John
20:19-31
(NJB)
The Second Sunday of Easter
(Year A) Divine Mercy Sunday
Listen!
The
early Christian communities flourished because they believed in one another, they
trusted one another, they relied on one another. They held their possessions in
common and the lived according to their beliefs. They shared their food, their
clean water, their way of life.
Because
of their example their communities grew.
It
was not their faith in the risen Christ that caused their communities to grow,
it was their faith in each other, and the way Jesus instructed them to
follow, they were strengthened by this and the example that Jesus set. These
are what allowed the early Christians to flourish, even in the face of persecution.
This
is not to say that the good news of the resurrection was not a binding doctrine
for the early Church, it was. However, what bound the early Christians even
more closely together was the living witness they brought to Jesus’ ministry,
both during his life and after his death, a witness they shared far and wide.
They
bore witness to the fact that God, the creator of the universe, is kind, loving
and merciful.
Jesus
taught this above all things, and for a few short years it was the principle
teaching of the Church he founded. Jesus taught that God is a loving parent, abba, and God approaches God’s children
in the spirit of love, always, even when God is exercising judgment and
administering justice, there is always love.
The
Church, like God, has no enemies.
God
does not dwell behind the wall of a city, a temple, a cathedral or a basilica.
There
are no gates barring access to God, there are no barriers, in the world or in
the mind, or in the true dogma of the Church.
God
is in all places, at all times and in the hearts of all people.
God
is with us!
God
does not favor one child over another.
God
is a bringing of life, not death. God loves peace, not war.
Remember!
God
is the parent of everyone, the creator of the universe, and everything in it,
and the resurrection of Jesus (if you believe in it) is a gift of hope. It is a
reason to trust in what had theretofore been unseen, and what has been promised
to everyone.
Whether
we believe in the resurrection or not, this does not matter, the resurrection
is the destiny that God has set in place for every person, God has promised
that not one of God’s children will be left in the dark.
All
will be saved.
What
faith in the resurrection does is this: Faith makes it easier to live the good
life. When your belief in God’s love for you is firm, it is much easier to pray
for those who persecute you, to love your enemy, to lead a just life, a life of
humility and mercy.
What
faith in the resurrection is not is this: Faith is not an article of belief
that a Christian holds onto, like a golden ticket that will grant them access
to paradise.
Faith
will not protect you from evil, either from within or from without.
Be
mindful of what Saint Peter taught, because Peter was mistaken about a great
many things.
Peter
praises the faithful for their love and devotion to Jesus, for their belief in
Jesus as the Christ, as an object of devotion, as an idea fixe, transforming our image of Jesus into an idol; calling
Christians to give their love and devotion to an image, instead of to the
way of life that he preached and taught.
Do
not tell people to be happy in their suffering, justifying it on the grounds
that they are suffering for a great cause.
Do
not tell them this!
If
a person is suffering and they have no choice, so be it, but do not tell them
it is God’s will; rather boost them up, support them, give them hope, but do
not speak to them about the honor and glory of their suffering, and do not
promise rewards for their suffering in the next life, do not promise these
things in the name of idols.
When
Christian faith moves away from the living tradition, and ceases to be way
of life, when it stops being about people, becoming a partisan thing, a thing
of ideology and doctrine, then the way is lost.
Consider
the bankrupt theology present in the sequence from the mass today, it demonstrates
much of what is wrong with Christian dogma and doctrine.
Know
this:
Jesus
did not die on the cross as a sacrificial victim. Blood does not serve to expiate
sin, it never has and it never could, that is not the way that the world works,
and God has always said that God desires mercy, not sacrifices.
Only
love transforms sin, it does so through the power of mercy, and forgiveness
both offered and accepted, that is what transforms sin.
Know
this:
God
is not a general and Jesus is not a warrior, there is no war taking place
between Heaven and the forces of sin and evil, there never has been and there
never will be.
All
the powers of sin and evil are infinitely less than the infinite power of God,
there is no contest. From God’s perspective the trauma of sin is a thing to be
mourn, not something to fight against, or draw battle lines to countermand.
Sin
is not something you cleave with the sword of wrath, but heal with the salve of
grace.
God
is not a king and Jesus did not seek a royal station, these are human
aspirations and we do a disservice to the way by clinging to them.
God
comes to us as a loving parent, and Jesus walked with us as a friend, be
mindful of this when you are at prayer.
Jesus
led an extraordinary life and died at the hands of his political opponents in a
rather ordinary way.
Let
us reflect on this and reject the lofty language that seeks to make more of it
than it was.
Consider
the Gospel for today.
On
the second Sunday of Easter the narrative moves us away from the ministry of
Jesus and into the life of the early Church, into the era of partisanship.
John’s
Gospel was written roughly one hundred-twenty years after Jesus died. The
reading for today contains some fascinating glimpses into the life of John’s
community.
John
says that on the night Jesus was crucified the apostles hid in the upper room
for fear of the Jews, indicating the deep division that had already taken place
between the nascent church and the Jewish people who founded it.
Jesus
and the apostles were themselves Jewish.
Ninety
years before John’s gospel was written, Saint Paul was active in his ministry
to the gentiles, arguing with St. Peter about the notion that gentiles must
first become observant Jews before they could join the Church.
St.
Paul won that argument.
The
church opened to the world, and ninety years later it would come to see the
Jewish tradition, from which the Church emerged, and all of its people, as
anathema to itself.
There
was great concern for the Church and its authority in this time. The Church’s
understanding and image of Jesus was changing in dramatic ways. Jesus becomes reimagined
as a priest doing priestly things; commissioning the disciples, instantiating
their office and empowering them to pass judgement on people, to forgive or not
forgive sins as the disciples saw fit.
This
flies in the face of the historical Jesus, a man who was not a priest, but a
prophet.
Jesus
forgave sins, and encourages the disciples to forgive sins, not because they
had the special power to do so, but because God, the creator of the universe,
forgives sins. When the prophet proclaims absolution, they are not exercising a
special power, they are proclaiming the will of God, and announcing something
that has already happened.
The
Gospel for today encourages the people to respond to mystical deeds and magical
happenings; ghostly apparitions and visions, as if the claim that these
supernatural events took place lent a greater authority to the work they were
engaged in.
Many
are taken in by this sort of thing, it is an appeal to magical thinking, but
those types of appeals are always fabrications and lies.
In
the final passage the gospel writer put forth the notion that the miracles were
real, they were performed so that people would believe that Jesus is (in a
special way) the son of God, and that through this belief they would become eligible
to enter the Church named after him, and thereby become candidates for eternal
life.
The
construction of this ideology is this: Come to the church where the Gospel is
given, learn the name of Jesus Christ, believe that he is the Son of God, receive
that belief as an object or an article of faith, present that belief at the
gates of heaven, and be rewarded with eternal life.
The
scheme of this tradition, which will be familiar to most Christians, this
scheme is Gnostic.
The
church rejected Gnosticism and these themes in the same era that John’s Gospel
was written.
We
should also reject them.
This
is the meaning of faith: Trust; have faith trust in God.
The
meaning of faith is not belief, belief in a proposition or an article of dogma.
Christian
faith is not: Believe in Christ so that you can be saved.
It
is: Trust God, you are saved already.
First Reading – Acts 2:42-47
©
The Faithful All Lived Together
and Owned Everything in Common
The
whole community remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the
brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
The
many miracles and signs worked through the apostles made a deep impression on
everyone.
The
faithful all lived together and owned everything in common; they sold their
goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves according to
what each one needed.
They
went as a body to the Temple every day but met in their houses for the breaking
of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously; they praised God and
were looked up to by everyone. Day by day the Lord added to their community
those destined to be saved.
Psalm
117(118):2-4,13-15,22-24 ©
Give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his love has no end.
Let
the sons of Israel say:
‘His
love has no end.’
Let
the sons of Aaron say:
‘His
love has no end.’
Let
those who fear the Lord say:
‘His
love has no end.’
Give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his love has no end.
I
was thrust down, thrust down and falling,
but
the Lord was my helper.
The
Lord is my strength and my song;
he
was my saviour.
There
are shouts of joy and victory
in
the tents of the just.
Give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his love has no end.
The
stone which the builders rejected
has
become the corner stone.
This
is the work of the Lord,
a
marvel in our eyes.
This
day was made by the Lord;
we
rejoice and are glad.
Give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his love has no end.
Second Reading 1 Peter
1:3-9 ©
You Did Not See Christ, Yet
You Love Him
Blessed
be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us
a new birth as his sons, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have
a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or
soiled and never fade away, because it is being kept for you in the heavens.
Through your faith, God’s power will guard you until the salvation which has
been prepared is revealed at the end of time. This is a cause of great joy for
you, even though you may for a short time have to bear being plagued by all
sorts of trials; so that, when Jesus Christ is revealed, your faith will have
been tested and proved like gold – only it is more precious than gold,
which is corruptible even though it bears testing by fire – and then you
will have praise and glory and honour. You did not see him, yet you love him;
and still without seeing him, you are already filled with a joy so glorious
that it cannot be described, because you believe; and you are sure of the end
to which your faith looks forward, that is, the salvation of your souls.
Sequence
Victimae
Paschali Laudes
Christians,
to the Paschal Victim
offer sacrifice and praise.
The
sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;
and
Christ, the undefiled,
hath
sinners to his Father reconciled.
Death
with life contended:
combat strangely ended!
Life’s
own Champion, slain,
yet lives to reign.
Tell
us, Mary:
say what thou didst see
upon the way.
The
tomb the Living did enclose;
I
saw Christ’s glory as he rose!
The
angels there attesting;
shroud
with grave-clothes resting.
Christ,
my hope, has risen:
he
goes before you into Galilee.
That
Christ is truly risen
from the dead we know.
Victorious
king, thy mercy show!
Gospel Acclamation Jn 20:29
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Jesus
said: ‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy
are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
Alleluia!
The Gospel According to John
20:19-31
Eight Days Later, Jesus Came
Again and Stood Among Them
In
the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed
in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and
stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his
hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord,
and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.
‘As
the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’
After
saying this he breathed on them and said:
‘Receive
the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those
whose sins you retain, they are retained.’
Thomas,
called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see
the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes
they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’
Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with
them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be
with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here
are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but
believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:
‘You
believe because you can see me.
Happy
are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
There
were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not
recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through
his name.
The Second Sunday of Easter
(Year A) Divine Mercy Sunday
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