Dear Parish Family,

This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday.  It is also the Sunday where the Gospel reading is always that of Doubting Thomas.  That’s because the second part of today’s Gospel takes place the Sunday after Easter.  Though we reflected on mercy during Lent, yet mercy is the foundation of the Easter Season.  Jesus came to bring God’s mercy to the world.  His death defeated the power of evil.  People could now approach the throne of Grace, as The Letter to the Hebrews presents it, to receive mercy.  Look closely at the first meeting of the Resurrected Christ with his disciples narrated in today’s Gospel. He stood among them and said, “Peace with you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Jesus came to bring mercy to the world.  He empowered the disciples and through them the Church, to be the vehicle of His Mercy.

There is a comforting simplicity to confession. With sincere contrition we need only open our hearts to the priest, recount our failings and ask for forgiveness. What follows is one of those moments in the life of the Church when the awesome power of Jesus Christ is most clearly and directly felt. In the name of the Church and Jesus Christ, the priest absolves us from sin.

We know that only God has the power to forgive sins, but it was Jesus Christ, God and man, who entrusted to his Apostles the administration of that grace. We cannot presume to know God's reasons, but perhaps he chose to use human instruments so that we would receive not only forgiveness, but also the assurance of that forgiveness by hearing it from the lips of someone acting in the person of Christ. All the ceremonies for forgiveness of the various Religions including that of Judaism had one unsolved problem. No one was certain if forgiveness asked for was granted or not. There was no ‘closure’ or finality, but at the Catholic Sacrament one hears the distinct words, “I forgive you, in the name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Such healing and soothing words cannot be heard anywhere else. Apart from the Eucharist, there simply is no greater gift that the Church can give her people than the gift of reconciliation since "the deepest spiritual joy each of us can sense is the freedom from whatever would separate us from God and the restoration of our friendship with so loving and merciful a Father who receives each of us with all the forgiveness and love lavished on the prodigal son. Renewed, refreshed and reconciled in this sacrament, we who have sinned become a 'new creation.'"

This becomes evident in today’s Gospel. Jesus understood doubts of Thomas.  He didn’t just offer Himself as proof that He had risen.  He forgave Thomas for doubting. This transforms Thomas and he expresses the greatest faith statement of entire Bible, “My Lord and my God.” And that is the key for today’s celebration.  Jesus forgives us for doubting.  People will often confess having doubts in the faith.  They wonder if God will forgive them for doubting Him.  I think we all wonder if God will forgive us for doubting.   Of course He will.   He knows what it is like to be human.  He knows how even the most determined believer will still have periods of doubts in his or her life. We pray for faith today.  We seek forgiveness for our times of doubt, and we are convinced that His mercy will fill us with His Life. After all, this is Divine Mercy Sunday.

Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.