Second Sunday of Easter: Divine Mercy Sunday

Having received mercy, let us now become merciful.

“Let us be renewed by the peace, forgiveness, and wounds of the merciful Jesus. Let us ask for the grace to become witnesses of mercy. Only in this way will our faith be alive and our lives unified. Only in this way will we proclaim the Gospel of God, which is the Gospel of mercy…

For if love is only about us, faith becomes arid, barren and sentimental. Without others, faith becomes disembodied. Without works of mercy, it dies… 

As the day’s Gospel episode of the doubting Thomas points out, “we discover God; we realize how close He is to us and we are moved to exclaim, ‘My Lord and my God!’” The grace of receiving mercy, he said, is the starting-point of our Christian journey. "Only if we accept the love of God, will we be able to offer something new to the world.

And this is what the disciples did, the Pope said pointing to the Acts of the Apostles. “Receiving mercy, they, in turn, became merciful.” 

Extracts from the exhortation that Pope Francis offered in his homily at Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2021, which is celebrated on the second Sunday of Easter.

To read more from Pope Francis' homily go HERE

Readings

Acts 5:12-16

… “Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them.”

Psalm 118  Response: Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.

Rev 1: 9-11a, 12-13, 17-19

“I am the first and the last, the one who lives. Once I was dead but now I am alive forever and ever.”

John 20:19-31

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me so I send you.”

Homily Studio podcast for a 30-minute conversation about the scriptures for this Second Sunday of Easter. HERE 

Being merciful is about being truly present to the daily human struggle

to reach beyond the dark.  Daniel O'Leary.

Image on the slider

Christ shows himself to Thomas. Mosaic from the Resurrection Chapel, Washington Cathedral
Source:    http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54879
Artist:      Rowan and Irene LeCompte
License:   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/