Divine Mercy Sunday Can You Trust In What You Cannot See?

Gospel	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.

"Show me!  Put it right here in my hands.  I'll believe it when I see it. That's impossible, I've got to see it for myself!" 

Sound familiar? Does it sound like you? Do you know anyone who sounds like that?  Don't feel bad if you are skeptical about things in this world. The world lends itself to being something that you should be skeptical about. We all learn to be street smart no matter what street we live on. Let me give you an example of something that happened to me that made me more street smart.  I saw an ad on Amazon for a copy of Microsoft Office good for five users and the price was only something like ten dollars.  I bought it.  I congratulated myself when I downloaded it and it actually worked...for a few days.  On day four I loaded word and it came up stating that this was not a licensed copy of Office and if I wanted it to work I would have to purchase a copy from Microsoft. This was an example of a deal being too good to be true and an example of how a fool and his money are soon parted.  It made me smarter. I went to an MS dealer and purchased a legitimate copy, which cost slightly more than ten dollars, actually a whole lot more than ten dollars, but it downloaded and is still working to this day.   So, life brings us lessons that make us a "Let me see the proof" kind of people.  This keeps us safe from scammers (Most of the time) and we adapt our life accordingly, evolution at work!  But this also puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to spiritual things, things we cannot see, hear, touch, or smell. How do we overcome this disability that serves us so well in our human life?  Make no mistake, we have to overcome it or else we will fail at the thing that is the most important to us, arriving in heaven and being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Saints. 

Luckily for us, God has a plan.  He sends us abundant graces, more than we will ever need or use, that overcomes our tendency to demand proof and He opens our eyes so that we can see Him in the world around us.  We see Him in nature, we see Him in the people around us, every time the sun comes up in the morning, inside of us a bell goes off and unless we suppress it actively as some people do, we know, deep inside of us, that we have a loving God who is caring for us as we go through life.  This is called faith.  As we go through life and we see God's hand interceding for us we gain trust.  To trust in God, one singer says, is to believe the sun will rise again while you are standing in a rainstorm.

In this world there is sinfulness.  Sin happens when we turn away from the ways of God and go our own way.  Some of us never turn around again and go off happily following selfish misery to our destruction.  But many of us feel the tug of grace pulling us back and we turn from our mistakes, and errors, and sins and we turn back to God.  We know that God will take us back if we are sorry for what we have done.  We Catholics have the sacrament of confession where we receive in a real way, in a way that we can hear.  We receive the absolution of the priest who is speaking in the Persona Christi, and all of our sins are washed away.  How do we know this?  Because Jesus told it to us as we read in the Bible. (Matthew 28:20)  We trust in Jesus and believe His words carry absolute truth in them. 

Between now and that day when Jesus returns is a time of great mercy.  Jesus today is willing to overlook and to forgive all of our faults, all of our sins, no matter what they are. Take advantage of this time of mercy.  If you wait until the end times when Jesus comes in His glory, you will be facing the Just Jesus who will dispense justice.  The time of mercy is NOW.  Catholics, when was the last time you went to confession?  If it was more than a month ago, maybe that is too long.  The Church rule is that we must go once a year. Do you think that is enough?  Would you think that taking a shower and changing clothes once a year would be enough? How about washing your car, is once a year enough to keep it clean?  So it is with your soul.  But you tell me, Michael the Lesser, I don't commit any mortal sins so why should I have to confess these minor sins.  Okay, fair enough.  It is obvious you have no idea how serious a venial sin is.  If God says, "Honor your father and your mother"  would you call your mother a dirty so and so?  Calling a stranger a name is bad enough but because you have done it to your mother who is deserving of your love and respect and has great dignity, your error is larger than when you said the same thing to a stranger.  Would you agree that this is true?  Well, when you commit even a venial sin, the sin is in essence against God no matter who was the victim of your shenanigans on earth.  You've offended the dignity of God the Father of all with your sin, and although the matter is "small" in nature, it is big in effect. 

Trust in Jesus, trust that His love for you can overcome any obstacle you can put between you and Him.  He is never more than arm's length away from you and is listening very carefully for the slightest hint you want to come back.  Once you do that your soul will be flooded with grace and your eyes will be opened and you know the Love of God first hand.  Trust in Jesus.  Trust in Jesus.  Trust in Jesus.  Amen!