2nd Sunday of Easter Homily

II Sunday of Easter / Divine Mercy Sunday (April 27, 2014)

Gospel reading: John 20: 19-31

Years ago, one of my spiritual mentors, Fr. Art Kinsella, O.P. used to say, “Sometimes to keep a friendship, you have to blaze a trail to your friend’s door.”  Friendships cannot be forced, but they need to be maintained. Friends need to be cared for.  Jesus knows that quite well.

To return, Jesus – the Risen Lord – had to cut a path, blaze a trail to the door, the door where the disciples were in hiding.

The first order of business of Jesus’ return was not to convince the disciples and us of him being raised from the dead, but to bring peace: reconciliation and healing with the Risen One. 

My former professor, Fr. Robert Barron writes, “The risen Christ returned to those who had denied and betrayed and run from him – and responded not with answering violence, but with a word of grace and forgiveness.”

His wounds were not incidental to that.  Recalling the prophet Isaiah, St. Peter writes in his first letter, “By his wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2: 24b).”  At the same time, they were the visible signs of what he suffered now transformed into living signs of his fidelity. 

Even though humanity had no reason to treat Jesus like he was treated, he came back to show that there was a reason why he did what he did, why he does what he does. 

Saint Padre Alberto Hurtado, a Jesuit priest from Chile, writes: “Jesus descended from heaven to earth to look for the only thing that could not be found in heaven: suffering – the consequence of sin; and he took it up without limits out of love for humanity.  …..He took on suffering in his soul, in his imagination, in his heart, in his spirit and in his body …..”

Some might look upon the Lord’s passion and resurrection and wonder what it’s all about.  However, before we can truly believe, we must be forgiven, reconciled …reconciled with Jesus who seeks to blaze a trail to each and every heart, reconciled with him who seeks to unite his wounds with ours. 

Jesus knows that he has to cut through the weeds and brush in our minds and hearts, where fear becomes overgrown, in order to rescue the friendship with us he had worked so hard to make firm. 

Jesus is not ashamed of his wounds.  Why?  For one, he’s not ashamed of us.