April 12, 2026
Second Sunday of Easter (or
Sunday of Divine Mercy)
Lectionary: 43
Reading
1
They devoted
themselves
to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life,
to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
Awe came upon everyone,
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
All who believed were together and had all things in common;
they would sell their property and possessions
and divide them among all according to each one’s need.
Every day they devoted themselves
to meeting together in the temple area
and to breaking bread in their homes.
They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart,
praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.
And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (1) Give
thanks to the LORD for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let the house of Aaron say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let those who fear the LORD say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
R. Give thanks to the LORD for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I was hard pressed and was falling,
but the LORD helped me.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just:
R. Give thanks to the LORD for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Give thanks to the LORD for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading
2
Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
kept in heaven for you
who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith,
to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.
In this you rejoice, although now for a little while
you may have to suffer through various trials,
so that the genuineness of your faith,
more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire,
may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Although you have not seen him you love him;
even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,
you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord;
blessed are they who have not seen me, but still believe!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
On the evening of
that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
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.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Thomas, called
Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Now a week later
his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Now, Jesus did
many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041226.cfm
Commentary on Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9;
John 20:19-31
On this Divine
Mercy Sunday—the first Sunday after the celebration of Easter—the emphasis is
on faith in the presence and power of the living Jesus in our midst. About
Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope John Paul II stated:
It is a time
where we are blessed with divine mercy as it reaches us through the heart of
Christ crucified.
The Risen Jesus
now lives on in the community which believes in him. The Apostles are endowed
with the same powers that Jesus had during his life here on earth:
Awe came upon
everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
The work of
Jesus continues
The First Reading tells us how the community of disciples lived:
Day by day, as
they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate
their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill
of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were
being saved.
People came
crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick
and those tormented by unclean spirits—and all of them were cured. This is the
living testimony that Jesus is active and continues his saving and whole-making
work among us for the disciples do these works—not in their own name, but in
the name of Jesus their Lord.
The Second Reading
shows the power of the Apostles’ faith as they proclaim the message of Jesus as
Saviour and invite people to join their company. As we will learn from readings
later this week, we know that many indeed did come. But there is also this
telling phrase:
None of the
rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. (Acts 5:13)
Perhaps this is a
hint of the counter-witness of the early Christians when they were already
being regarded with suspicion by the religious and civil authorities and when
it was becoming dangerous to be identified with them? They were a group to be
admired, but from a safe distance. It is yet another sign that the early
followers were likely to share the same fate as Jesus himself.
Mixed
reactions—to be expected
Things have not changed greatly in our own time. For it is through the
Christian community and its witness that people come to know of Jesus and are
led to faith in his message of truth and life. It is a witness that rests on
the shoulders of every single follower of Jesus and we do it not just by
explicitly religious actions, but by the very pattern and impact of our daily
lives. An impact that arouses both positive and negative responses.
However, the
Gospel brings us back to an earlier stage when the disciples have not yet come
to the full realisation that Jesus, whom they saw crucified, dead and buried,
is now risen and alive. As the Gospel opens we see them huddled together in that
room with the doors firmly locked “for fear of the Jews.” At any moment they
dreaded the arrival of the police to arrest them as accomplices of the
dangerous subversive who had been executed on Golgotha the previous Friday.
Peace instead
of fear
And then, all of a sudden, the Jesus they presumed dead is standing among them.
He says:
Peace be with
you.
The greeting can
be taken as a blessing, echoing the ordinary Jewish greeting, Shalom.
Or it can be taken as a statement of fact—his presence among them brings deep
inner peace. It is the same peace that comes when Jesus calms the surrounding
storms in the Gospel stories. And there is also for them an unutterable joy
when they see the Lord (‘Lord’ is the title for the Risen Jesus).
But it is not just
to be a happy reunion. There is work to be done, the work that Jesus began and
which they are to continue.
As the Father
has sent me, so I send you.
They are being
given a mission. The word ‘mission’ comes from the Latin word ‘to send’ (mittere).
All followers of Jesus have a mission and are missionaries.
Passing on his
Spirit
He breathed on them, saying:
Receive the
Holy Spirit.
In John’s Gospel,
this is the Pentecost experience when the Holy Spirit comes down on the
disciples. In Luke’s Acts, Pentecost takes place 50 days after the
resurrection; for John it takes place on Easter Day. This apparent discrepancy
makes no difference—the meaning is the same.
What Jesus does is
reminiscent of the Creation story when God ‘breathed’ over the waters and
brought life and order into the chaos. He ‘breathed’ again and Adam, the human
being made into the image of God, came to life. Now, Jesus ‘breathes’ the
Spirit of his Way, of his Truth and Life, making the disciples (in Paul’s term)
“new human beings,” full of the Spirit of the Father and Jesus.
The meaning of
forgiveness
The very empowering authority of Jesus is transferred to them:
If you forgive
the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they
are retained.
When they act
together in the name of Jesus, they have his authority. And, above all, their
task is to ‘forgive sin’, that is, to bring about a deep reconciliation between
people and God and among people themselves, to make all one in Him.
Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matt 5:9)
We are not just
talking here about ‘confession’, instituting the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
although its roots can be traced to this encounter. Forgiving sin is much more
than a juridical act of declaring sins no longer held against someone. It
involves the healing of wounds and division between God and people, and between
people as brothers and sisters in one family based on truth, love and justice.
That is the work of the Kingdom. That is the work of every Christian community
and every member in it.
The doubter
But the story is not yet finished:
Thomas (who was
called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
Thomas stands for
the sceptic in all of us, and says:
Unless I see …I
will not believe.
In the Gospel
story generally, Thomas comes across as a bit of a grump. He likes to
criticise, to raise objections, to make difficulties, to call into question. He
now wants convincing proof.
Unless I see
the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails
and my hand in his side, I will not believe.
The following
Sunday—the Sunday we are celebrating today—the doors are again closed. Perhaps
now not out of fear, but as an indication of the way that the Risen Jesus now
becomes present. Again, there is the reassuring greeting of ‘Peace’, and Thomas
is directly addressed:
Put your finger
here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt
but believe.
Extraordinary
confession
There follows the greatest confession of faith in all of the Gospels as Thomas
says:
My Lord and my
God!
Thomas had been
invited to touch the wounds, but he does not seem to have done so. And his cry
of recognition is not based only on the evidence of his senses. He does not
say, “Jesus, it’s you!”, but rather, “My Lord and my God!” It is, in fact, a
profound act of faith in the reality and identity of the Person standing before
him. And that is something he cannot see solely with his physical senses. Only
the eyes of faith can lead him to so speak.
A further word of
encouragement, though, is offered for those of us who have not had Thomas’
privileged experience:
Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
Of course, all
belief in Jesus involves some element of seeing, of insight. But we have not
had the experience of seeing and knowing the Jesus of his public life—Jesus
before the crucifixion.
However, our faith
enables us to see him in all the surroundings of our daily life, especially in
those people who are filled with his Spirit and who bring him into our lives.
And we also see and find him in all the sick, the weak, the oppressed, the poor
around us who provide us with opportunities to know, love and show compassion
for Jesus. We are even to see him in those who are hostile or who do harm to
us, in the sense that we are challenged to be Christ for them in our
unconditional love and concern for their well-being.
Breaking down
barriers
To see and know Jesus in our lives is, at the same time, to recognise where he
comes to us, and then to be ready for the day-to-day opportunities when we can
bring him into the lives of others. Above all, can we be true to the mission
Jesus gave to his disciples to be instruments of reconciliation, to be
peacemakers, breaking down walls of hatred, prejudice and fear? We do this by
living lives of integrity, of love and compassion, of real justice for all.
Whenever we do that, Easter is celebrated and Jesus is alive among us.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/ea021/
Sunday, April 12, 2026
Second Sunday
of Easter
Opening Prayer
Father, who on the Lord’s day gather Your people to celebrate the One who is the First and the Last, the living One who conquered death, grant
us the strength of Your Spirit so that, having broken the chains of evil, calmed
our fears and indecisions, we may render the free service of our obedience
and love, to reign in glory with Christ.
LECTIO
A Key to the Reading:
We are in the so-called “book of the resurrection” where we are told, in a not-so- logical sequence, several matters
concerning the risen Christ and the facts that prove it. In the fourth Gospel, these facts take place in the morning (20: 1-18) and evening of the first day after
the Saturday and eight days later, in the
same place and on the same day of the week. We are before an event that is the most
important in the history of humanity, an event that challenges us personally. “If Christ has not been raised then our preaching
is useless and your believing
it is useless… and you are still in your sins” (1Cor 15: 14, 17) says Paul the apostle
who had not known Jesus before
His resurrection, but who zealously preached Him all his life. Jesus is sent by the Father. He also sends us. Our willingness to “go”
comes from the depth of the faith
we have in the Risen
One. Are we prepared to accept His “mandate” and to give our lives for His Kingdom? This passage is not
just about the faith of those who have not seen (the witness of Thomas), but also about the mission entrusted to
the Church by Christ.
A Suggested Division of the Text to Facilitate its Reading:
•
John 20: 19-20: appearance to the disciples and showing of the wounds
•
John 20: 21-23: gift of the Spirit for the mission
•
John 20: 24-26: special appearance to Thomas eight days later
•
John 20: 27-29: dialogue with Thomas
•
John 20: 30-31: the aim of the Gospel according to John
Gospel Text – John 20: 19-31
19 On the evening
of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood
among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." 20 When He had said this, He
showed them His hands and His side. Then
the disciples were glad when they
saw the Lord. 21 Jesus
said to them
again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent
Me, even so I send you." 22 And when He had said this, He breathed
on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain
the sins of any, they are retained."
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called
the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other
disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he
said to them, "Unless I see in His hands
the print of the nails,
and place my finger
in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in His side, I will not believe."
26 Eight days later,
His disciples were again in the house,
and Thomas was with
them. The doors were shut, but
Jesus came and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see My
hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side; do not be faithless, but believing." 28 Thomas answered
Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to
him, "Have you believed because
you have seen Me? Blessed
are those who have
not seen and yet believe."
30 Now Jesus did many other
signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
31 but these are written
that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
A Moment of Silence
to allow
the Word to enter into our hearts
MEDITATIO
A Few Questions to Help in Our Meditation:
Who or what drew my interest
and wonder in the reading?
Is it possible for someone to profess being Christian and yet not
believe in the Resurrection of Jesus? Is it so important
to believe in the resurrection? What would be different
if we stopped at His teaching and
witness of life? What does the gift of the Spirit for the mission mean to me? How does Jesus’ mission
in the world continue after the Resurrection? What is the content of the missionary proclamation? What value has Thomas’ witness
for me? What are, if any, my doubts
concerning the faith?
How do I meet them and still carry on? Am
I able to give reasons for my faith?
Comment:
•
In the
evening of that same day, the first day of the week: the disciples are
living through an extraordinary day. For the community, at the time of the
writing of the fourth Gospel, the day after the Sabbath is already “the Lord’s
day” (Rev 1: 10), Dies Domini (Sunday), and is more important than the Sabbath was in the tradition of
the Jews.
•
The doors were closed: a detail which
shows that the body of the risen Jesus,
even though recognizable, is not
subject to the ordinary laws of human life.
•
Peace be
with you: this is not just a wish, but the actual peace promised to them when they were saddened
by His departure (Jn 14: 27; 2Thess 3: 16; Rom 5:
3), the messianic peace, the fulfillment of the promises made by God, freedom from all fear, victory over sin and death, reconciliation with God, fruit of
His passion, free gift of God. This peace is repeated three times in this passage
as well as in the introduction (20: 19) further on (20: 26) in the exact same way.
•
He showed
them His hands
and His side: Jesus provides evident
and tangible proof that he is the one who was crucified. Only John records
the detail of the
wound in the side caused by the spear of a Roman soldier, whereas Luke mentions
the wound of the feet (Lk 24: 39). In showing his wounds, Jesus wants to say that the peace he gives comes from the cross (2Tim 2: 1-13). They are
part of his identity as the risen One (Ap 5: 6).
•
The disciples were filled with
joy when they
saw the Lord: This is the
same joy expressed
by the prophet Isaiah when he describes the divine banquet (Is 25: 8-9), the eschatological joy foreshadowed in the farewell
speech and that no
one can take away (Jn 16: 22; 20: 27). Cfr. also Lk 24: 39-40; Mt 28: 8; Lk 24: 41.
•
As the Father sent me, so am I sending you: Jesus is the first missionary, “the
apostle
and high priest of the faith we profess” (Rev 3: 1). After the experience
of the cross and the resurrection, Jesus’ prayer to the Father comes true (Jn
13:
20; 17: 18; 21: 15, 17). This is not a new mission, but the mission of Jesus extended
to those who are His disciples, bound to Him like branches are bound to the vine (15: 9), so also they are bound to His Church (Mt 28: 18-20; Mk 16: 15-18; Lk 24: 47-49). The eternal Son of God was sent so that “the world might be saved through
Him” (Jn 3: 17) and the whole of His earthly existence,
fully identified with the saving will of the Father, is a constant manifestation of that divine will that all may be saved. He leaves as an inheritance this historical
project to the whole Church, especially to ordained ministers within
that Church.
•
He breathed
on them: this action recalling the life-giving breath of God on man (Gen 2: 7), does not occur anywhere
else in the New Testament. It marks the
beginning of a new creation
•
Receive the Holy Spirit: after Jesus was glorified, the Holy Spirit was bestowed (Jn 7: 39). Here the Spirit
is transmitted for a special mission, whereas at Pentecost (Acts 2)
the Holy Spirit comes down on the whole people of God.
•
For those whose sins you forgive
they are forgiven; for those whose
sins you retain, they are retained: we find the power to forgive or not forgive
sins also in Matthew
in a more juridical
form (Mt 16:
19;
18: 18). According to the Scribes
and Pharisees (Mk
2: 7), and according to tradition (Isa 43: 25), God has the
power to forgive sins. Jesus
gives this power
(Lk 5: 24) and passes
it on to his Church. In
our meditation, it is better not to dwell on this text’s theological
development in church tradition and the consequent theological controversies.
In the fourth Gospel the expression may be taken in a wide sense. Here it is a
matter of the power of forgiving sins in the Church as salvation community
and those especially endowed with this power are those
who share in the apostolic charism by succession and mission. In this general power is included the power to forgive
sins also after baptism, what we call “the sacrament of reconciliation”
expressed in various forms throughout the history of the Church.
•
Thomas,
called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve: Thomas is one of the main
characters of the fourth Gospel and his doubting character, easily discouraged, is emphasized (11: 16;
14: 5). “One of the twelve”
is by now a stereotyped
expression (Jn 6: 71), because in fact
they were only eleven. “Didymus” means “the Twin”, and we could be his “twins”
through our difficulty in believing in Jesus, Son of God who died and rose again.
•
We have
seen the Lord! When Andrew, John and Philip had found the Messiah, they had already
run to announce the news to others (Jn 1: 41-45).
Now there is the official
proclamation by eye-witnesses (Jn 20: 18).
•
Unless I see the holes that the nails made in His hands and can put my finger
into the holes they made,
and unless I can put my hand into His side, I refuse
to
believe: Thomas cannot believe the eye-witnesses. He wants to experience the event himself. The fourth Gospel
is aware of the difficulty that some may have in believing in the Resurrection (Lk 24; 34-40; Mk 16: 11; 1Cor 15: 5-8),especially those who have not seen the risen One. Thomas
is their (and our)
interpreter. He is willing to believe, but he wants to resolve personally any
doubt, for fear of being wrong. Jesus does not see in Thomas an indifferent
sceptic, but a man in search of truth and satisfies him fully. This is, however, an occasion to express
an appreciation of future believers
(verse 29).
•
Put your finger here,
look, here are My hands.
Give Me your hand; put it into My
side. Doubt no longer but believe! Jesus repeats the words
of Thomas and enters into a dialogue
with him. He understands Thomas’
doubts and wishes to help him. Jesus knows that
Thomas loves Him and therefore has compassion for him because Thomas does not
yet enjoy the peace that comes from faith. Jesus helps him to grow in faith. In order to enter deeper into this theme,
see the parallels in: 1Jn 1-2; Ps 78: 38; 103: 13-14; Rom 5: 20; 1Tim
1: 14-16.
•
My Lord and my God!
This is a profession of faith
in the risen One and in his divinity as is also proclaimed in the beginning of John’s Gospel (1:1). In the Old Testament
“Lord” and “God” correspond respectively to “Yahweh” and “Elohim” (Ps 35: 23-24;
Rev 4: 11). It is the fullest and most direct paschal profession
of faith in the divinity of Jesus. In Jewish circles these terms had greater value
because they applied
to Jesus texts
concerning God. Jesus
does not correct the words of Thomas as He corrected the words of the Jews who
accused Him of wanting to be “equal
to God” (Jn 5: 18ff)
thus approving the acknowledgement of His divinity.
•
You believe
because you can see Me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe! Jesus cannot stand those who look for signs and miracles
in order to believe (Jn 4: 48) and He seems
to take Thomas
to task. Here we must remember another passage
concerning a more authentic faith, a “way of perfection” towards a faith
to which we must
aspire without the demands of Thomas, a faith received as gift and as an act of trust, like the exemplary faith of our ancestors (Rev 11) and of Mary (Lk 1: 45).
We, who are two thousand years after the coming
of Jesus, are told that, although we have not seen Him, yet
we can love Him and believing in Him we can exult with “an indescribable and glorious
joy” (1Pet 1:8).
•
These
(signs) are recorded so that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that believing
this you may have life through His name. The fourth
Gospel, like the other Gospels,
does not mean to write
a complete biography of Jesus,
but only to show that Jesus was the Christ, the awaited Messiah, the Liberator,
and that He was the Son of God. Believing in Him means that we possess
eternal life. If Jesus is not God,
then our faith
is in vain!
ORATIO
Psalm 118 (117)
O give thanks to the Lord,
for He is good; His steadfast love
endures for ever! Let Israel say,
"His steadfast love endures for ever." Let the house of Aaron say,
"His steadfast love endures for ever." Let those who fear the LORD say, "His
steadfast love endures
for ever."
I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. The
Lord is my strength and my song;
He has become my salvation. Hark, glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the
day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice
and be glad in it.
Save us, we beseech Thee, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech Thee, give us success!
CONTEMPLATIO
Closing Prayer
I thank You Jesus, my Lord and my God, that You have loved me and called me,
made me worthy to be Your disciple, that You have given me the Spirit,
the One sent to proclaim and witness to Your resurrection, to the mercy
of the Father, to salvation and pardon for all men and women in the world. You truly are the way, the
truth and the life, the dawn without
a setting, the sun of justice and peace.
Grant that I may dwell
in Your love, bound to You like a branch
to its vine. Grant me Your peace so that
I may overcome my weaknesses, face my doubts
and respond to Your call and live fully the mission
You entrusted to me, praising
You forever, You who live and reign forever
and ever. Amen.
