Posted on April 27, 2025 View all Gospel Reflection
“Peace be with you.”
Happy Easter! As we complete the octave of the celebration of Easter on this Divine Mercy Sunday, the Gospel reminds us of the words of the risen Jesus “Peace be with you.”
All too often in our times, when people talk about peace, they often mean the absence of conflict, or to just let things roll off your back and not care about those things. The peace that Jesus speaks of and offers to each of us is much more profound and lasting. Jesus wants to still our hearts so that we can bask in the glory of His risen body and also to behold the great things he has in store for us.
Furthermore, Jesus wishes to send us forth as agents of peace and forgiveness into the world. He commissions his disciples with the gift of the Holy Spirit to go forth and to be his hands and heart to act in persona Christi through the Sacrament of Confession. When St. Faustina, who brought to the world the will of Jesus Christ that this Sunday should be known as Divine Mercy Sunday, reflected on the meaning of Divine Mercy she wrote that Jesus seeks from us trust. “The graces of my mercy are drawn by the means of one vessel only, and that is trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.” (Diary, entry 1578)
Trust is a combination of Faith and Hope. We begin with faith in accepting what God has revealed to his Church, and we continue with hope through our confidence in his promises of forgiveness. The encounter of St. Thomas and Jesus Christ in today’s Gospel is a wonderful model of that dynamic. Thomas doubted the words of the disciples. However, when Jesus appeared before Thomas and invited him to place his hand in the side of Jesus, he moved from faith to hope through his confession of “My Lord and my God!” He confessed what he did not see, and thus was moved to hope for things even greater.
When we look at the Divine Mercy image of Jesus, we see the streams flowing from his heart. Streams of water and blood. These two streams that flow from the pierced heart of Jesus represent for us the great gift of Baptism (water) and the Eucharist (blood). In spite of and in fact, as a result of our sins piercing the heart of Jesus, forgiveness and mercy flow out to us. This week let us first continue to rejoice in the great gift of Jesus’ triumph over death, and second let our hearts be moved from doubt to trust. To trust in Jesus is to allow him to work through us. And when we allow him to work through us, it is then that we will truly have the peace that Jesus offers each of us every day.
