Easter Beatitude (2nd Sunday Easter C)

The gospel today (Jn 20:19-31) proclaims, as it were, the Easter beatitude: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (v. 29). Clearly this speaks of Christian believers who have not been eyewitnesses to the marvellous event of Jesus’ resurrection but have, nonetheless, demonstrated an unwavering faith in Him as Lord and God.  This speaks about us who, despite our many struggles in life and obstacles to the joy of believing in this increasingly secularized society, continue to live in faith and proclaim the goodness and mercy of God.

Today, the Divine Mercy Sunday is an invitation for us to put our trust in the infinite mercy of our loving God and experience the blessedness that the Lord has promised to those who believe in Him. Let us allow God’s mercy to lead us into the three significant interior movements that the disciples experienced as they encounter the Risen Lord in the gospel account today.

The movement from fear to joy.  The death of the Master on the cross on Good Friday sent the disciples to hiding. Out of fear, they holed up in a room afraid of a possible crack down on the followers of the crucified Messiah. Today’s gospel, however, recounts how Jesus dispels their fear by offering them his peace: “Peace be with you.” Jesus’ appearance throws away the paralysis caused by fear and, once again, enables them to rejoice in freedom. Then Jesus, after overcoming the obstacle of fear, sends them to the mission of proclaiming the gospel. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5:12-16) tells us that the apostles become the adhesive force of the community, gaining respect from people, and attracting a great number of converts.  

What are my fears? Is it fear of rejection? Or of pain? Suffering? Persecution? When we live in fear, we back off and hide in order to protect ourselves from harm.  But the price of maintaining this false security is high. We lose the joy of spontaneity, the freedom to be sent and proclaim the love and mercy of God.  Hence, let us allow the Risen Lord to allay our fears and to lead us to the joyful conviction that God is always on our side.

The movement from guilt to the peace of forgiveness.  Another very likely disposition of the disciples following the horror of Good Friday is guilt. Judas’ guilt has led him to despair; and we can just imagine the angst of Peter for having denied the Lord three times!  Yet, Jesus greets them with the Easter gift of peace.  No mention of their betrayal and cowardice. And not only has he forgiven them, He makes them instruments of God’s forgiveness.  He breathes on them and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (v. 22-23).  Jesus empowers the apostles to overcome the anguish of guilt by forgiveness. Hereafter, the apostles and their successors will be Jesus’ representatives in the world to impart his peace by absolving the sins of those who repent.

What have I done that continues to haunt me and imprisons me? Or what have I failed to do for people I love and for God? Our guilt imprisons us. It can rob us of our peace of mind and continue to torment us. To experience the Easter beatitude, we need to allow the Risen Lord to grant us peace and experience that deep sense of being forgiven. Only when we accept the boundless mercy of God that we can truly live with the Easter happiness.

The movement from doubt to faith.  Another obstacle to Easter faith is doubt. The encounter between Jesus and Thomas in today’s gospel demonstrates how Jesus overcomes doubt. Jesus yields to Thomas’ obstinacy showing the latter the evidence he is looking for as a requirement for his belief. Thomas goes down in history as the doubting apostle; yet when we come to think of it, his skepticism saves us from our own doubts. Thomas has disproved any theories that suggest the resurrection as mere hallucination on the part of the apostles. He has seen the Risen Lord in his own eyes in the very terms he demanded. Hence, his proclamation of faith, “My Lord and my God!” can also be ours.  

Does the joy of believing manifest in my life? The societies we find ourselves in are subscribing more and more to secular philosophies which belittle and ignore the truth of our Christian faith. Many times, unawares we allow this worldview to be our own too as we face life and make decisions. This slowly jeopardizes our joyful witnessing to our faith. Like Thomas, let us allow the Risen Lord to come to us and overcome our lack of faith.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us come to Jesus, bringing with us our fears, our guilt, and our lack of faith but trusting in the transforming power of his mercy. Let us allow his infinite mercy to open the locked doors of our hiding place and invite us to come out into the open with joy instead of fear, with peace instead of guilt, with faith instead of unbelief.