April 27, 2025
John 20: 19-31
Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday
Fear can be a powerful, even paralyzing emotion. The opening scene in today’s Gospel describes the disciples huddled in a locked room in fear, probably still in shock as well, following Jesus’ crucifixion. They suddenly realized that Jesus was in the room with them. “Peace be with you, He said!” Did He perhaps continue by reminding them of the message He gave them at the Last Supper: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” He promised them an advocate, the Holy Spirit.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus fulfills this promise: “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive are forgiven them. Whose sins you retain, they are retained.” Is this gift, this power, this manifestation of God’s mercy superior even to the wonders about which we learn in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles? There we listen to the description of how the crowds were drawn to the apostles and “they were all cured.”
We also witness Jesus’ mercy and patience in responding to Thomas’ specific and even arrogant demand. He invites Thomas to do exactly as he requested – to put his finger into the nail marks and his hand into Jesus’ side. Jesus then challenges him to deeper faith – “blessed are those who have not seen and who believe”.
‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus speaks these words to us today. Fear rides in the hearts of many of us during this tumultuous time in our world, in our country, and thus in our own lives. The key is that Jesus Peace and Spirit come to us in silence. We need to make time and space for Him to enter our hearts, to bring His peace, to quiet our fears, to enliven us with the gift of His Spirit.
The poet, Mary Oliver, offers some imaginative insights in her poem
“Such Silence”
As deep as I ever went into the forest
I came upon an old stone bench, very, very old,
And around it a clearing, and beyond that
trees taller and older than I had ever seen.
Such Silence! ………
I sat on the bench waiting for something.
An angel, perhaps.
Or dancers with legs of goats
No, I didn’t see either. But only, I think, because
I didn’t stay long enough.
Where is your stone bench, how do you find the silence to wait, not for dancers with legs of goats, but for Jesus and His loving mercy and Peace?
John 20: 19-31
That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Meet Sister Helen Bellew, SNDdeN
