Easter is too big. We cannot understand Easter in one Sunday. That is why the Church, over the past 2,000 years has taught us to take seven weeks to “unpack” Easter. You will see each Sunday how each week’s scriptures will take us deeper and deeper into the Easter mystery.
This Sunday is known throughout the Catholic world as “Divine Mercy Sunday”. We heard from that ancient Psalm, written centuries before the birth of Jesus,
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.”
Many try to say that our God is an angry, vengeful God. Not true. Our God is a God of mercy. He came to save us. When Jesus appeared to the disciples the same evening as his Resurrection, we hear him say to them,
“Peace be to you”
When he appears again the following Sunday, he says to them and the “doubting Thomas”,
“Peace be to you”
And he adds that he wanted them to help people be forgiven of their sins.
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
With that instruction, Jesus gave to the Church the Sacrament of Reconciliation, our Confession. I don’t know if you have noticed, but we are blessed to be in a parish that confesses regularly. I would rather be pastor of a parish that actively, frequently confesses than a parish that doesn’t. A parish that confesses regularly is filled with blessings, as our parish is blessed.
God wants all of us to live in Heaven with him. St. Peter tells his listeners,
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 his great mercy (God) gave us … a living hope … an inheritance that is imperishable … kept in heaven … “ for us. That is our salvation.
Perhaps you have encountered Protestant fundamentalists who ask, “Have you been saved?” The problem we encounter is one of understanding what is being said. We have been promised salvation by our Baptism and Eucharist. The correct way to think about this question is not something already done, but decisions and actions that we are doing every day. Because we live the sacramental life given to us by Jesus through the Church, we are being saved. It is a daily effort to live with the hope of our salvation. Look back at the reading about the earliest Church after the Pentecost, when St. Luke writes,
And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Because we are living our sacraments together, we are being saved. Easter creates the Christian community. Easter gives us hope. Your Church was founded by Jesus to help each of us to become the person God has called us to be. If we live faithful to the sacraments, Jesus is with us and we are being saved, becoming that person Jesus made each of us to be. We can only do it with him, and with each other. We can’t do it without him, or the Church. Jesus is in the sacraments, in his Church.
Alleluia. Thanks be to God.