April 16, 2023 The Second Sunday of Easter, Year A

Paul T. Keil, 16 April 2023

The Second Sunday of Easter, Year A

Peace be with you and greetings on this celebration of the 2 ^nd Sunday of Easter, also called Divine Mercy Sunday. So, this long title for today kind-a begs two questions; first, if this is the second Sunday of Easter, how long does Easter really last and second, what exactly is Divine Mercy Sunday? Well, Easter really lasts seven whole weeks and this year it ends on May 28 ^th when we celebrate Pentecost. Consequently, we can all keep joyfully wishing everyone a Happy and Holy Easter for almost six more weeks. That’s a beautiful gift and a great opportunity to evangelize when your Protestant friends look at you like you’re crazy.

For the second question about Divine Mercy Sunday, it really began during the celebration of the Millennial Jubilee Year in 2000. During a special Mass at the Vatican, on the Second Sunday of Easter, for the canonization of St. Faustina Kowalska, St. Pope John Paul II proclaimed to the world, “from now on throughout the Church this Sunday will be called Divine Mercy Sunday.”

St Faustina lived a mystical experience for some 14 years of her life she literally receiving personal revelations from Jesus Christ. And based one of those revelations I’d like to tell a short personal story. I had a Catholic friend die last Saturday and unfortunately, for multiple reasons, not the least of which is our critical shortage of Priests, he was not anointed prior to his passing. My friends, listen to what Jesus told St. Faustina about praying at the bedside of the dying; “At the hour of their death, I defend as My own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or when others say it for a dying person, the indulgence is the same. When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person God’s anger is placated, unfathomable mercy envelops the soul, and the very depths of My tender mercy are moved for the sake of the sorrowful Passion of My Son.” Sisters and brothers, the Divine Mercy Chaplet only takes about 10 minutes but what a spiritual gift for someone near death, especially in an emergency. It’s not a substitute for an anointing by a Priest but it is a spiritual promise from Jesus for his Divine Mercy.

OK now, let’s talk about our Gospel reading for a few minutes. One scholar I’ve studied describes the Evangelist John as an artist who, in this Easter evening scene, has captured the whole of Christianity if only we have the eyes to see it. Let’s listen to the Gospel reading bit-by-bit. Here is the opening, “on the evening of that first day of the week.” Almost sounds a little like Genesis, doesn’t it? For us as Christians and really for all of mankind, Jesus’ resurrection on that first day of the week inaugurates a completely new creation. Everything changed. The one called “the light of the world” has risen from the dead. Considering what it means for humanity, it’s as though God said again, “Let there be light” – and my friends, if you’re not getting it, you’re not getting the Easter message.

So, what did change on that very first Easter? Just listen to the next phrase from John’s Gospel, “when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear.” Well, I guess it’s easy to imagine the primary cause for their hiding behind locked doors with very real gut-wrenching fear of physical death, just like Jesus’ horrible death on the Cross. It’s been said, one could argue, the primordial human problem has always been fear of death. Some philosophers actually say the opposite of love is not hate but the opposite of love is fear and its fear that gives birth to hatred. In the 1 ^st Letter of John, 4:18 we’re given a Christian formula however, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” And that is exactly what happened on Easter! Jesus’ Resurrection proves that God’s perfect love is more powerful than death itself and humanities’ primordial fear of death can end forever.

Now, as Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst, the Apostle’s may have had another reason to fear, however. They had abandoned him during his dreadful Passion. They may have thought something like, “Oh, Oh, now He’s really angry and He’s going to call down lightening and turn us all into charcoal.” What does Jesus say though? “Peace be with you.” Now here’s kind of a sad note when it comes to Bible translations. The word Jesus used here would have actually been “Shalom” and we really don’t have a textbook English word that can fully embrace the Hebrew concept of Shalom. A clearer translation in this circumstance might be something like; “What God wants for God’s people.” John explains what Jesus means by “peace” or shalom in 14:27 where he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

Next John tells us Jesus showed them his hands and his feet and the disciples rejoiced but Jesus wasn’t looking for a party. He immediately sends them on mission, breaths on them, and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” So, about this mission thing, Bishop Robert Barron says, “The Church doesn’t have a mission; the Church is a mission.” He says, “A passionate Catholicism brings people to Christ.” Now folks, that’s not just meant for ordained clergy, that’s meant for every Catholic. We are all the Church. Fortunately, God also gives every single one of us the Holy Spirit in Baptism and every other Sacrament helping us on mission just like those original disciples. In fact, we can view the whole life of the church as this, receive divine life in the Holy Spirit then – give it to others.

Now, certainly Sacramental Absolution of sin is a gift specifically given to Priests but the word forgiveness itself should never be viewed exclusively for the ordained. There is a direct link between sending on mission, the Holy Spirit, and forgiveness. Sin can be thought of as a self-imposed interruption of divine love, a path that can lead to a loss of the divine life. Our own personal willingness to forgive others may not only bring fellow Catholics back from lives of sin and interrupted love but it may also serve as an attraction for non-Catholics. When the great G.K. Chesterton was asked why he became Catholic he responded, “So I could have my sins forgiven.” Therefore, know with confidence, when the Holy Spirit is breathed out by any of us, it can include an invitation for Sacramental Reconciliation within the Church itself but regardless, a personal willingness to forgive should always be offered.

OK, so what about good old Doubting Thomas? He wasn’t with the others on that first Easter evening. We’re never told where he was, but have you ever wondered, why Jesus simply didn’t go to him wherever he might have been instead of waiting until the disciples were all together again in one place? Friends, all the dynamics of God’s new creation; Christ’s new resurrected life, overcoming fear, gifting of the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins, giving himself in Eucharist were all on display in community – and that community is what we now call Church. Don’t try to do it by yourself. Don’t try to find your way on your own. There is a message from the Doubting Thomas story you may have never thought about. Stay within the community of Church because this is exactly where you will find God’s new creation.

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Paul T. Keil, 18-19 July 2026 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Season A Peace be with you and welcome to our celebration of the Mass for the 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time. OK, some of you may remember I’ve said before, in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapters 5, 6, and 7 comprise the whole Sermon on the Mount, but did you know Chapter 13, where we are today, is often called the Sermon of the Parables. In this single chapter Matthew strings together seven separate parables from Jesus. Today we just heard numbers two, three, and four. Last weekend we heard the first one with the Parable of the Sower and what happens to the seeds scattered in different places. Next weekend you’ll hear the final three parables from Chapter 13 so, be sure to come back. So, what is Jesus saying in these readings. Last week we heard the parable about seeds as an allegory for Jesus’s words falling on a path and being eaten by birds, falling on rocky ground and withering with no roots, falling into thorns and being choked by life’s anxieties, and falling on fertile soil to bear fruit. Today we have Jesus giving us another parable about planting seeds and again, just like last week, Jesus’ disciples ask him to explain the parable. And since He stops to explain both parables about planting, he just might be trying to emphasize something important here for his disciples, and for us. One thing is clear in these parables however, God’s Kingdom will always coexist in this physical world with forces opposing it, like the wheat and the weeds growing together. Now many religious people struggle with this condition. Some see it as predestination. A weed in the wheat field or a seed in the rocks must represent people predestined to go to hell. That’s what it literally says, right? Still others ask in frustration; this is God we’re talking about, why does God’s Kingdom have to struggle with opposing forces at all? Why doesn’t God just get rid of the evil? Well, our old friend, St Thomas Aquinas wrote quite a bit about good and evil coexisting in our fallen world. He said sometimes the two are so tightly interwoven that you couldn’t have certain types of good without certain types of evil. For example, he said simply, “there would be no virtue of the martyr without the cruelty of the tyrant.” Friends, God delights in our freedom, our intelligence, and our cooperation when we freely make the decision to accept God’s love. Without free will we cannot choose to love. Jesus’ explanation of the wheat and weed parable certainly helps when he says; “The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels” and in the next verse he says; “The Son of Man will send his angels.” There is a very important take-away here every single Christian should remember. Eternal judgment belongs to God alone, not to anyone else – period. This is a consistent message Jesus gives us in all four Gospels but unfortunately, there are those who sometimes forget this simple divine fact about humanity’s relationship with the unlimited creator of the universe. We may perceive an individual as being bad or even intrinsically evil but judgment for their immortal souls belongs exclusively to God. I always like an old adage that goes like this, “if I ever get to heaven, I may be surprised by who I see there, and they may be even more surprised to see me.” I’ll admit, over the years for a long time, as I’ve meditated on this parable about weeds and wheat or last week’s parable about seeds, especially the ones falling into thorns choked by worldly anxiety, there was something always bothering me. You see, if we’re not careful both parables can make life, heaven, and hell sound kind of random or worse yet, they can make God’s love sound like it is exclusively reserved for preselected people. I know now however, there is nothing further from the truth. If you’ve lived life for a while and think back to times when you were say maybe,,, struggling in school, or first dating, or trying to make ends meet while raising a family, or competing for promotions at work, or trying to buy that first house, you realize there may have been times when your life wasn’t very spiritually fruitful. In fact, I now realize there were times in my own past when thoughts of God, salvation, or prayer were nowhere in my daily routine. I even wonder; was there a period in my life when I was one of those weeds or a seed in the thorns? Thankfully, with reflection on the whole of Scripture, guidance from the Church, and maybe some help from the Holy Spirit I realize now these parables are not “either / or” propositions. God doesn’t intentionally create some people as weeds and some people as wheat nor does God throw souls into the wind to randomly fall in the thorns, or on stony ground, or in fertile soil. If you’re not careful, you can come to those conclusions, however. You can read the Bible too narrowly and pick out verses here and there that help support your personal image of what you want God to be. Those tend to be the same people who like to do God’s judgment work for him. Here’s the thing; some of us here today may have actually spent some time as those ugly weeds but at some point, with God’s help, we decided to change and now we’re wheat growing in that good old fertile soil. My sisters and brothers, sin must never be viewed as a permanent state. Like we heard from the Book of Wisdom today, “you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.” This is the greatest gift of our Christian faith; God loves us all so much, even great sinners, God is always ready to forgive. So, here’s a challenge and homework for us all today. Most of us know people out there from all age groups, but especially some of our youth, who may be temporarily living life like the weeds in our parable today or maybe tangled in those thorns of life’s tribulations. First and foremost, we must be confident, sin is not a permanent state of life, second, we don’t judge, third, pray for them no matter how nasty they may seem. And finally, if we’re really, really brave, we offer them a hand to pull them up and out of the weeds, rocks, or thorns into God’s fertile soil.