Second Sunday of Easter. Year A. Divine Mercy Sunday - Sunday, April 19, 2020

Second Sunday of Easter. Year A. Divine Mercy Sunday - Sunday, April 19, 2020

Readings for 2nd Sunday of Easter A
FIRST READING: Acts 2:42-47
Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24. "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting."
SECOND READING: 1 Pet 1:3-9
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 20:29). Alleluia, alleluia! You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me; happy those who have not seen me, but still believe.
GOSPEL: John 20:19-31 

Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed stock photo ID: 20641483. St Thomas Icon In Eastern Orthodox Christian Style. By Denis Radovanovic 
++++Please listen to my audio recordings of the readings, prayers and reflections for the Second Sunday of Easter. Year A. Divine Mercy Sunday - Sunday, April 19, 2020 by clicking this link here:   https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/easter-2a-2020/s-bP0me6dmFAU  (EPISODE:223)
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This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday, where we recall the absolute mercy and love that Jesus has for all humanity.  

Today we know that Our Lord is certainly worth trusting in, and all his promises are true…..  We can thank Thomas for Jesus confirming that for all future generations….  including us here and now….
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The Homily this weekend will be given by Fr Peter Dillon. 

Low Sunday: Second Sunday of Easter 2020

It has been said that faith survives and grows when there is a whole culture that conspires and promotes it to keep a religious view intact. Which says to me that it is easy to be a believing Catholic if you never meet someone who isn’t.. Yet when you and I move out of that culture it is sometimes difficult to maintain that belief, particularly if we have accepted beliefs blindly and have not sort to understand their meaning and significance.

In our world every day we meet cynicism, doubt and pluralism, and we usually choose to walk away from any counter-arguments because we either don’t feel confident in arguing our beliefs or we don’t see it as important enough to go to the trouble.

The task of every Christian is to make Christ visible in the world. That is how it was from the time of the first disciples. Once they had seen Christ, they felt compelled to make him know to others. Today the risen Christ commissions his followers to do just that: ‘As the Father has sent me, so am I sending you’. The question is, what sort of Christ are we making visible to the world?

In all three years of the cycle of readings the Low Sunday, probably called so in the English speaking world because it follows the high significance if Easter  or First Sunday of Easter gospel is the same: the account of the appearance of the risen Lord to Thomas. Thomas is a strong and questioning character. The placement of the gospel here is to remind the Church and the world that we are not a credulous group of people who are easily misled. The first response of the Christian is always skepticism. The Disciples are surprised and doubtful about the resurrection before they come to belief only when they have seen it for themselves. They are loathe to accept the testimony of Mary and the other women who discovered the empty tomb.. Peter and John must go to see the empty tomb for themselves. Thomas is the most extreme form of this skepticism and yet he comes to the most profound faith. Jesus, in response, utters the ninth Beatitude: ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe’. In other words, how much more difficult will it be for those who have not had the advantage of post resurrection appearance to come to faith in the risen Christ.  Yet it is these blessed ones, despite their very real doubts, who must be the heralds of the Good News.

Among the first of the believers who had never met Jesus was the Apostle Paul.

He is the earliest of the Christian writers,  and describes Christ as the image or icon of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). He is the living image of the Father. His humanity made present and reveals the God who dwells in unapproachable light.  However, after Calvary, his visible presence was withdrawn from the world and  we are left with icons which are meant to reveal him, somewhat as glimpsed in faith, and make him present to our consciousness. (One of these icons is  the Divine Mercy, another Sacred Heart, another the Infant  Jesus of Prague)

Jesus of the Scars

American pioneer environmentalist, Aldo Leopold, died in 1948. He lived in a world which was not yet ready to develop an ethical attitude to the planet. Seeing the mistreatment of the world’s forests, wilderness and wildlife, Leopold once said that, ‘One of the penalties of an ecological education is living alone in a world of wounds’.

In all the great artistic depictions of Resurrected Jesus, they always include the scars on his hands, feet and side. One might imagine that in resurrection not just the soul, but the body would be in a perfect state. But it was through these scars that we learn the road of resurrection. They were not wounds of failure but indications of the sacrifice made to show us how to arrive at this perfect state. 

The risen Jesus appears today with wounds of love.

Jesus through his rising has passed into the uncreated life of God. He had made the great breakthrough but he retained the signs of his love for the world. The scars of his passion are not only proof of his identity but also of his continuing love for us. This is the God who makes his own the cause of every man and woman wounded in life. The Jesus of the Scars is the human expression of the divine, eternal love itself, the glory of God shining through his wounds. The assurance that fulfillment comes through the cross and only through the cross. 

We are asked this weekend to take the difficult road to belief, to saying ‘my lord and my god’. Who is this God we worship and adore and why? In his passion, death and resurrection, Christ confronts suffering and evil, confronts it at its depths and overcomes it by the supremacy of his love.

Eternal Father, turn your merciful gaze upon all humanity who are enfolded in the most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, show us your mercy, that we may praise You forever and ever. Amen

+++++References:
Fr Peter Dillon.

Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed stock photo ID: 20641483. St Thomas Icon In Eastern Orthodox Christian Style. By Denis Radovanovic 
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Second Sunday of Easter. Year A. Divine Mercy Sunday  (Sunday, April 19, 2020)  (EPISODE: 223 )
The Lord be with you.
+++++++++++++{{Welcome everyone}}
my brothers and sisters, to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries, let us call to mind our sins.
Lord Jesus, you are mighty God and Prince of Peace. Lord have mercy// You are Son of God and the Son of Mary. Christ have mercy// You are Word made flesh, the splendour of the Father. Lord have mercy.
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.
+++++++++++++++++++++Memorial Acclamation2. When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++Easter I
Euch Prayer II
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{I pray that you have a wonderful and grace-filled week.}
Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.
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Archive of homilies and reflections:  http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
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Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection"  - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants  — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989,  and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009,  The Grail - Collins publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful -   " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'.   E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).

{Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" -  by Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria,  copyright 2011 ccwatershed.org. }

"Today I Arise" - For Patricia Kelly.  Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer.  Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

[ Production -  KER -  2020]

May God bless and keep you.