Archbishop of Sydney

Second Sunday of Easter

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Acts 4:32-35; 1Jn 5:1-6; Jn 20:19-31

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
23/4/2006

Today is the eighth day of Easter, which began officially with the celebration of the vigil on Holy Saturday night.  The last Lenten liturgy is on Good Friday afternoon.  These eight days of Easter signify a new beginning, our annual attempt to view reality through the eyes of faith in the light of the risen Christ.

The second century martyr St. Justin, one of the first Christian apologists i.e. those who tried to explain the faith intellectually to the surrounding pagans (they were not apologizing for their faith), used the idea of the eighth day in a different sense.

“On the first day God separated light from darkness.  On the eighth, Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead, the beginning of new life”.

The North African St. Augustine (+430), the greatest theologian in the first millennium, spoke about this time after Easter as “the Eight Days of Mercy”.  So today we might see this second Sunday of Easter as a special time to celebrate the reality of God’s forgiveness and mercy in the everyday life of the Church.  Make no mistake about it; the further our society moves away from Christian principles the more difficult our society will find it is to understand mercy and forgiveness.

The gospel passage today from John places us in the upper room, where the traditional site, as well attested as many in Jerusalem, is occupied by a medieval building and where, incidentally, I went to celebrate Mass with a group from the Neo-Catechumenal Way, when we heard that Pope John Paul II was in his last agony just over one year ago.  He died the next day.

It was on this site that the disciples were hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews.  They had heard Christ’s teachings, which still make us marvel after nearly 2000 years.  They had seen his miracles but most had not performed well at the moment of supreme testing.  Most of them ran away except for Mary, some of the women and John.  Judas had sold Jesus out and Peter, the designated leader and man of rock, had denied Christ three times.  We could say they were paralysed, imprisoned by their awareness of their own failures, the most demanding prison of all, unless you believe in the reality of mercy and forgiveness.

Then Jesus appeared among them, showing them his wounded hands and side and uttering those liberating words “Peace be with you”.

He gave them a double charge: to go out as witnesses, sent by Him as He was sent by his Father; and He also gave them the power to forgive or refuse to forgive sins through the Holy Spirit, who would be with them.

We are able to receive forgiveness when we repent and we also have to face up to the equally difficult challenge of forgiving others.  We see these realities in the father figure in the parable of the Prodigal Son forgiving the young repentant playboy who fell on hard times and came home.  We see this in the Good Shepherd leaving the ninety-nine safe to search for the one lost sheep.  These two examples are God at work in his mercy.

As we receive mercy, so each of us is required to bring God’s mercy to others, because as Jesus taught “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall have mercy shown them”.  Without deeds of mercy our faith would not be real, because Our Lord also taught “It is not those who say ‘Lord Lord’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven.”

Pope John Paul II who was a great promoter of the feast of Mercy, which we now celebrate on this Sunday, stated in his encyclical “Dives in Misericordia” (Rich in Mercy) that the Lord’s injunction to be merciful is at the heart of the gospel and in the revelation which St. Faustina received.  Jesus places this obligation to pass on the divine mercy on all those who come to him seeking mercy.

St. Faustina’s diary contains at least fourteen passages where she describes how Our Lord wanted this feast to be celebrated on this octave day of Easter.  Today, she writes, the very depths of mercy are open.  Jesus promised to pour out a whole ocean of grace on those who approach this fountain of mercy, including the gift of faith which enables nearly everyone, saint and sinner, to make their own St. Thomas’ great profession of faith “My Lord and My God”.

Ours could well be called the age of Thomas.  It is fashionable in some circles, taken for granted, to be unbelievers.  Some good people genuinely find it hard to believe.  We regret this, but I am sure the eyes of their hearts are moved by deeds of mercy.

So, especially today, as we continue to celebrate the feast of the Risen Lord, let us invoke that faith with confidence as we practise mercy and commend ourselves to the Divine Mercy of Christ our Redeemer.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.