Second Sunday of Easter / Sunday of Divine Mercy
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Not as easily conceptualized by the human person, who can more seamlessly relate to Jesus, the God-Man in the flesh, and to the image and divine person of the Father whom Jesus came to reveal to us, God the Holy Spirit is still God, and, residing within each human person and in the whole family of humanity, is the manifested reality of the divine love generated between the Father and the Son, and indeed among the three persons of the one undivided Trinity.
By virtue of God’s love affair with humanity throughout salvation history, we human persons – – and in a particular way, we the baptized – – are tabernacles of God the Holy Spirit. In other words, God’s very presence dwells within each one of his beloved, in order to draw our hearts closer to him and to one another, in love.
As the Church today officially declares that Karol Józef Wojtyła and Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (Popes John Paul II and John XXIII, respectively) are enjoying forever the eternal banquet of the Lamb as “saints” in the halls of heaven, let us take to heart the mission they followed while with us on Earth, the same mission of Jesus’ own apostles: To live in joyful hope, with the sure knowledge of the Spirit’s presence among and within us, of God’s coming Reign.
The Divine Mercy of Jesus – – a message so often preached by John Paul II – – is accessible to all who wish to draw from the Source of all compassion and forgiveness. And so, with the sure knowledge of the presence of the Spirit within us, let us, like Thomas in today’s gospel, probe His hands and side, drawing strength from the One who came to be with us and to save us in greatest love.
Pope Saint John Paul II, pray for us!
Pope Saint John XXIII, pray for us!