Pope Francis on Divine Mercy
Sunday: ‘Contemplate boundless love’
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| Pope Francis celebrates Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday. |
On the Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope
Francis’ homily focuses on Doubting Thomas’ who eventually “falls in love with
the Lord.”
By Sr. Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp
Pope Francis points out that the verb “to see” is repeated
over and over in the Gospel text (John 20:19-31). Although the disciples see the
Lord, the Gospel “does not describe how they saw him,” the
Pope said. By mentioning the detail “he showed them his hands and his side” (v.
20), the Gospel seems “to tell us that that is how the
disciples,” and Thomas, “recognized Jesus: through his wounds.”
“Seeing” for ourselves
Thomas wanted to “see inside,” Pope Francis
continued. He wanted to touch “with his hand the Lord’s wounds, the signs of
his love.” This is how Thomas is our twin, because so often we need to know for
ourselves that God exists rather than taking others’ word for it. “No, we too
need to ‘see God,’ to touch him with our hands and to know that he is risen for
us,” the Pope said.
A Love Story
Pope Francis tells us that it is by seeing Jesus’ wounds
that the disciples of all time know that we have been forgiven because we
“contemplate the boundless love flowing from his heart” –a heart that beats for
each person. When Thomas touched the Lord’s wounds, Jesus became “My Lord and
my God.” Pope Francis describes the appropriation of God as mine as
a “love story.” The uncertain, wavering disciple then falls in love with the
Lord telling him: “You became man for me, you died and rose for
me and thus you are not only God; you are my God, you
are my life. In you I have found the love that I was looking for,
and much more than I could ever have imagined,” Pope Francis said.
Savouring this love
The Pope says we can begin to savour this newfound love
through the same gift Jesus granted on the evening of his Resurrection:
the forgiveness of sins. Before forgiveness we may hide behind the
doors of shame, resignation and sin.
Grace helps us understand shame as the
“first step towards an encounter” and as a “secret invitation of the soul that
needs the Lord to overcome evil,” Pope Francis said.
Resignation tempts us to believe that nothing
changes when we find ourselves lapsing, like the disheartened disciples after
the “ ‘Jesus chapter’ of their lives seemed finished.” At a certain point, Pope
Francis says that “we discover that the power of life is to receive God’s
forgiveness and to go forward from forgiveness to forgiveness.”
The last closed door to open is sin. Pope Francis reminds us
that Jesus “loves to enter precisely ‘through closed doors,’ when every
entrance seems barred.” When we go to confession, we will learn that the very
thing we believe separates us from God – sin – instead “becomes the place where
we encounter him. There the God who is wounded by love comes to meet our
wounds.”
Pope urges youth to embrace Jesus’ dream of building
God’s kingdom
Pope Francis offered Italian children from Brescia the
example of St. Francis who embraced Jesus’ dream and stripped himself of the
'old man'.
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis challenged young people on Saturday
to listen to Jesus and change something within them in order to build God’s
kingdom of love. Meeting some 3000 children from the northern
Italian Diocese of Brescia, the Pope wished that the upcoming Synod
of Bishops in October on “Young People, the Faith and Vocational
Discernment” be well prepared for by truly listening to young people. He
said true listening also means openness to change, walking together and sharing
dreams.
Jesus’ dream – God's kingdom of love
The Pope said that young people also need to listen to
Jesus, change something within themselves and adopt His dream. This dream
of Jesus, he explained, is the Kingdom of God which means loving God and loving
one another and forming a big family of brothers and sisters with God
as Father, who loves all his children and is full of joy at the return of
the lost one.
Abandon ‘old man’
When Jesus says that anyone wanting to follow Him must deny
himself, the Pope said, He does not mean despising life, desires, the body
and relationships, all of which are good What he means is abandoning the
‘old man’ in us, the selfish ego that goes after ones interest often masked
behind a pleasant façade. He noted many are slaves of egoism,
attached to riches and vices that are inner slavery.
Surprising experiences
The Holy Father said Jesus died to free us from the slavery
of sin that kills us from within. But to free us, Jesus needs our
collaboration, our repentance, humility and love. And those who trust
Jesus, the Pope said, are rewarded with surprising experiences, such the joy of
feeling the beauty of His Word in the Gospel and the Bible, being
attracted to the Mass, being with God in silence before the Eucharist,
experiencing Him in the suffering, the sick and
the abandoned. The Lord also give one that the courage
to go against the current without ostentation and judging others. All
these, the Pope said, help to empty oneself more and more and be filled with
Him more and more.
Francis of Assisi
As a case in point, the Holy Father pointed to St. Francis
of Assisi, who in his younger days was full of worldly dreams. But after Jesus
spoke to him from the crucifix, he “embraced the dream of Jesus, stripped
himself of the ‘old man’, denied his egoistic self and welcomed the self of
Jesus, humble, poor, simple, merciful, full of joy and admiration for the
beauty of creatures.
The Pope also asked the young people to find out about the
dreams of their own countryman from Brescia, Blessed Pope Paul VI,
as a young man in his family, as a student and in the oratory.
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