Homily for Divine Mercy Sunday April 8, 2018
Fr. Albert St. Peter’s, New Iberia
When you’ve been on a long trip, what’s the first thing you want to do when you get back? Perhaps you like to take a nap, grab a bite to eat, or just take a few moments to unwind. But what if, instead of all that, you were to go over to your neighbor’s house, take out the trash, mow the lawn, sweep, mop and clean up their whole house? Sounds fun?
Well, that’s kind of what Jesus did. Jesus has just been to Hell and back, literally, and that’s the first thing he does. He cleans up his neighbor’s mess. This is the first time he appears to the Apostles on the very day that he rose from the dead. He barely gets 20 words in before he goes back to dealing with our sins – his neighbor’s mess. “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.” The first thing Jesus does when he rises from the dead is give us the Sacrament of Confession, the sacrament of mercy, which is why this is called Divine Mercy Sunday.
But, that divine eagerness – Jesus’ urgent desire – can and does meet with some obstacles. The first obstacle is a lack of faith: the inability to believe that Jesus actually conquered death and sin. We see this with Thomas the Apostle, often called “doubting Thomas.” He doesn’t even get to hear about his new Apostle super-power – the ability to forgive sins – because he can’t believe that Jesus is alive. He needs proof first.
Well, so often we do not ask for forgiveness because we lose faith in the idea that he really gave this power to the Church. But, the problem is not that you have doubts – all human beings deal with doubt, even the saints. No, the problem is when you do not bother to deal with those doubts. Thomas was honest, but he was also open. Despite his doubts, Thomas stayed with the other Apostles – he didn’t go join another group. This shows us that he knew there something more to this story and he wanted to be in on it.
So, when you have doubts, do you just give in to them without a fight? How hard do you work to find answers and proof? If you never challenge the doubts head on, how can you expect them to be resolved? When you have doubts about the Church’s teaching, when you have doubts especially about Confession and God’s ability to forgive your sins, then go looking for the answer. Ask God to help you believe. One famous line of Scripture is the prayer “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” Then, make every effort to learn from the Apostles and Scripture and good Catholic websites out there.
If you still have doubts, keep praying and, yes, you can even ask for proof – it worked for Thomas, right? Believing without seeing is truly more blessed, but seeing and then believing is still a heck of a lot better than not believing at all.
The other obstacle to Jesus’ desire to forgive our sins is simple division. The Acts of the Apostles – our first reading – tells us that “the community of believers was of one heart and mind.” That means they worked together and they all believed the same things about what truly matters. You don’t have to look far to realize that this is not the case with Christianity around the world today. Thousands of denominations saying different things about Jesus, and salvation, and the forgiveness of sins. Even worse, there are those who call themselves Catholic but reject what the Church actually teaches.
Like doubt, division in the Church can cut us off from real forgiveness. Unlike doubt, being divided from the Church is not something every believer has. Doubts are natural occurrences but being divided from the Church is the result of your decisions. Even before Jesus’ death and resurrection, he says that he wants believers to all be one. Right here at the very beginning of the Church it is clear that being of “one mind” is an essential part of what it means to be a Christian.
There are men and women in the Church, even priests and bishops who will tell you that you don’t really need Confession to be forgiven. There are men and women in the Church, even priests and bishops who will tell you that some sins are not sins anymore, that mercy means you don’t have to try to stop sinning. These are lies. The Church has taught the same basic truths for 2000 years and there are really only two options. Either you believe in the Church or you believe in yourself and you just so happen to agree with us on some things.
Jesus never said, “blessed are those who agree with some of my teachings,” he said, “blessed are those who believe.” We can help you resolve your doubts. We can forgive your sins. But if you are divided from us, if you simply continue to reject what the Church teaches because you think you know better, then there is nothing we can do.
Jesus wants nothing more than to give you his mercy. Not a weak, watered-down, “everybody’s fine the way they are” kind of mercy but a full-blooded, I-just-died-on-the-cross-for-you, and I-want-to-make-you-perfect kind of mercy. The mercy that doesn’t just forgive Peter for denying Jesus but makes him stronger than ever. The mercy that isn’t just patient with Thomas’ doubt but actually makes his faith stronger. This is Divine Mercy Sunday, the Eighth Day of Easter, the sign of the new creation, and the promise of Eternal Life.
The Gospel tells us it is written so that you may come to believe. So, I beg you, believe! Believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Believe that the first thing he did when he rose from the dead was tell us to forgive sins. Believe that he sent the Apostles… that he sent me and all priests and bishops into the world forgive sins. Cast aside your divisions and your agendas. Bring us your questions, bring us your doubts, but above all, please, bring us your sins!