Jesus appears to his disciples

It’s the second Sunday of Easter and if you didn’t know, it is Divine Mercy Sunday, a holiday instituted by the Blessed Pope John Paul II. I hope you started and never broke the 9-day Novena of the Divine Mercy that began on Holy Friday. Remember that if you are a Divine Mercy devotee and pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy prayer daily, when your day will come, our Lord Jesus Christ promises you only his unfathomable divine mercy.

Meanwhile, the gospel reading for this Sunday is about the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples. Indeed, after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, he has already appeared to Mary Magdala, then to Cleofas on the road to Emmaus. Now it’s the turn of his disciples to see the risen Lord. You can read this passage in John 20:19-31.

“19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. 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 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” 24 Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples said to 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 into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 Now a week later his disciples were again inside and the Thomas was with them, Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put you finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

28 Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?” Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”

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I have no doubt in my mind that many of the things that our Lord Jesus Christ taught to this disciples, including the miracles that he did before their eyes did not prepare them for this very meeting that is written in the gospel of John. For sure, all the disciples of Jesus were aware of how the Romans brutalized his body through the scourging of the pillar, the crowning of thorns and his eventual nailing and death on the cross.

That the lifeless body of their teacher and master was brought down from the cross and placed on his distraught mother was perhaps too much for his disciples to bear. So it has been a week since news or rumors of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ has reached their ears and from very reliable sources, like Mary Magdala, Peter and John, the beloved disciple. Then Cleofas validated this on the road to Emmaus.

Fearing the Jews, the disciples locked the door, but all of the sudden, like ghost, our Lord and Master Jesus Christ appears on their midst. This image was probably a bit disturbing to many disciples, even if some of them were probably eyewitnesses to the raising of Lazarus from the dead. For sure, the sudden appearance of their master whose glorified body still bore the marks and scars of Roman cruelty may have frightened some disciples. Some of his disciples probably were ashamed that they had abandoned the Lord when the Roman guards arrested him.

But then our Lord Jesus spoke and said, “Peace be with you.” He said this while showing them the nail marks on his hands and the wound on his side. But there was not a single iota of resentment coming from their master whom they abandoned after the Last Supper. What the disciples were getting was God’s divine love and mercy… something that even today, few people can understand because we think as humans do and not as God does.

Today, this world is filled with Atheists who no longer believe that God exists. If we follow their line of thinking, that there is no God, therefore there shouldn’t be any love or blessings coming from God. Without God, then we cannot expect God’s mercy for our sinfulness. How time has changed indeed… but God is ever unchanging and he continues to shower us with his love and blessing, despite our sinful wretchedness. It is for this reason that the Catholic Church too should be unchanging like God.

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