From our Pastor’s Desk

Dear Family:

Most houses are well alarmed nowadays; the computerized alarm has become as basic an item as table and chairs. We also need to have good strong locks; long gone, at least in the cities and towns, are the days when you could just leave the key in the door, and let neighbors ramble in casually for a chat and a cup of tea. We are more fearful about our security than we used to be, and this fear and anxiety has led us to take more precautions to protect ourselves. Fear of what others can do to us tends to close us in on ourselves, not just in the physical sense of getting stronger door locks, but also in other senses. We tend to be somewhat withdrawn around people whom we perceive to be critical. We are slow to open up to someone we think will judge us. We hesitate to share ideas and plans we might have with those who are known not to suffer fools gladly. Fear of others can often hold us back and stunt our growth.

In today’s gospel we find the disciples locking themselves into a room because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Even after an excited Mary Magdalene came to them from the empty tomb announcing that she had seen the Lord, this was not enough to overcome their fear. What had been done to Jesus could be done to them. This fear led to their hiding in self-imposed confinement. The turning point came when the risen Lord himself appeared to them behind their closed doors and helped them over their fear. He did this by breathing the Holy Spirit into them, filling them with new energy and hope, freeing them from fear and releasing them to share in his mission. “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you,” he said. In the power of the Spirit they came to life and went out from their self-imposed prison, to bear witness to the risen Lord. This is the picture of the disciples that Luke gives us in today’s reading from Acts. He describes a community of believers, the church, witnessing to the resurrection both in word and by the quality of their living.

We can all find ourselves in the situation of those first disciples, locked in their hiding place. Any combination of the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” can water down our commitment to following the Lord. Like the disciples in today’s gospel, we can be tempted to give up on our faith journey. The will to self-preservation can prevent us from doing what we are capable of doing with the Lord’s help. The wounds we carry from earlier, failed initiatives make us hesitate to try again. Even when someone seems full of enthusiasm and hope like a Mary Magdalene, we shrug it off. We let them get on with it, while we hold back and stay safe. This morning’s gospel suggests a way out of our self-imposed confinement. If Magdalene makes no impact on us, the Lord will find another way to enter our lives and to fill us with new life and energy for his service. No locked doors, nor even locked hearts, can keep him out. He finds a way to enter the space where we have chosen to retreat and he empowers us to resist what is holding us back. He does require some openness on our part; at the least some desire on our part to become what he is calling us to be. The risen Lord never ceases to recreate us and to renew us in his love. Easter is the season to celebrate the good news.

Just as the disciples were unmoved by the hopeful enthusiasm of Mary Magdalene who had seen the Lord, so Thomas was unmoved by the witness of the disciples who told him they too had seen the Lord. Thomas, it seems, was an even harder nut to crack than the other disciples. He is one of those people who insist on certain conditions being met before he makes a move, “Unless I see, I cannot believe.” As he had done with the other disciples, the Lord takes Thomas on his own terms. He accommodates himself to Thomas’ conditions and says, “Put your finger here.” This morning’s gospel implies that the Lord meets us wherever we are. He takes us seriously in all our fears and doubts. The Lord is prepared to stand with us on our own ground, whatever that ground is, and from there he will speak to us a word suited to our personal state of mind and heart. We do not have to get ourselves to some particular place in order for the Lord to engage with us. He takes himself to where we are, wherever it is a place of fear or of doubt. We might pray this Easter season for the openness to receive the Lord’s coming into the concrete circumstances of our own lives, so that we too might say with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” We might also pray that, like the Lord, we would receive others where they are, rather than where we would like them to be.

On another subject, in the year 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II designated this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter, to also be Divine Mercy Sunday. When we hear the word “mercy”, our thoughts might turn to the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness is an important part of God’s mercy. Knowing our need for forgiveness, Jesus first died for our sins. Then, during his appearance in the locked room, Jesus gave the Apostles the power to forgive sins. We need mercy in the world today. Pope Saint John Paul II knew this when he named this Sunday as Divine Mercy Sunday. Likewise, Pope Francis, may his soul rest in peace, also understood the need for mercy today when he proclaimed a Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015. However, God’s mercy is not only about God’s forgiveness. At the core of the message of Divine Mercy that came through St. Faustina is that God loves us. Jesus died because God loves us.

As part of his message of Divine Mercy to St. Faustina, Jesus told her, “Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy.” Jesus offered the message of Divine Mercy to St. Faustina in early 20th century Poland. That was not the beginning of Divine Mercy. Jesus himself showed Divine Mercy in curing the sick, driving out demons, and dying for us on the Cross. God’s mercy goes back even further. God has always been merciful. Our psalm today repeats, “His mercy endures forever” three times. We give thanks that “his mercy endures forever” whether it be his forgiveness, his compassion for our physical needs, or his help spiritually, we “give thanks to the Lord for he is good.”

Therefore, we must remember our calling to be merciful people, because we have received the mercy of God, by making us One Body, One Spirit, One Family!

Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Katharine Drexel, Saint Michael the Archangel, Pope Saint Pius X, St. Charbel and St. José Gregorio Hernández, pray for us.

Yours in Christ Jesus!
Fr. Omar