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Divine Mercy Sunday Homily

 

10 April, 2022

 

How do we know that we are happy in this life? Do we know that we are happy because we can proof it by having material possession? We all know too well that worldly possessions are not the proof of our happiness. Thomas, who appeared on the Gospel reading today, was reminded by Jesus that happiness is not something which needs to be proven before you can experience it. Our true happiness comes from surrendering ourself to Godʼs mercy.

 

The encounter of Thomas and Jesus teaches us that our true happiness comes from believing that God offers us the wounds of his own Son as source of healing. We can feel the true happiness when we let go our wounds in this life and unite them with the wounds of Christ himself. This is the sign of Godʼs mercy to us. When Jesus invited Thomas to touch his wounds, this was not just an act of giving physical proof to Thomas so that he would believe in Jesusʼ resurrection. It was an invitation for Thomas to experience Godʼs mercy being poured out to humankind from his own wounds. When Thomas responded to this invitation of Jesus, he surrendered all of the doubts, all of the sadness, all of the shame which haunted him before.

Our wounds in this life, the misery we feel because of sins often prevent us from really recognizing the beauty of faith offered by Godʼs divine mercy. When a sinner is haunted by his/her own betrayal to God, the only solution to liberate this person from his/her own inner shame is by acknowledging that Jesus also experienced being humiliated by this broken world during his passion. God, through Jesus, reveals his willingness to become the one who accompanied us in this journey of shame, this journey of living in the broken world. God invites us again and again to let go our shame, guilt, inconsistencies into Jesusʼ own wounds.

We may feel that the realities of our sinfulness never end. We may feel that God does not work the magic needed to make us feel clean again. And then we start to abandon God. Needless to say, God is more than a magician. With miraculous work, God surely can eliminate all of our miseries in an instant. However, the invitation from God is not an invitation for us to instantly change. Just like the resurrected Jesus who appeared to the disciples in many times, and just like Thomas who found the second chance in meeting the resurrected Jesus personally, God invites us to meet with the resurrected Jesus throughout the realities of our lives.

Like Thomas, we may not be able to meet Jesus in the first time. And like Thomas also we may feel doubt afterwards. But there will always be a second time during which like Thomas we can say personally to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” As much as God always want to be with us through our doubts and sufferings, we are invited also to be with all of those who are suffering in this world. Let our prayer during these difficult times be the prayer from the third verse of the responsorial psalm today: I was hard pressed and was falling, but the LORD helped me. My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior.
 

Fr. Antonius Firmansyah, SJ

 

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