Divine Mercy Sunday and the Meaning of the Resurrection, by Gayle Somers

By Gayle Somers, Catholic Exchange, April 5, 2024

Gayle Somers is a member of St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Phoenix and has been writing and leading parish Bible studies since 1996. …

Today’s Gospel records a post-Resurrection appearance of Jesus in which His mercy to sinners begins to flow.  Watch out!  There is no stopping it.

Gospel (Read Jn 20:19-31)

The celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday usually focuses on the sheer ecstasy of His victory over death.  All during Holy Week, we are absorbed with the details of His horrific Passion.  When we reach Easter, our hearts nearly burst with joy that Jesus is alive and vindicated as God’s Son.  In other words, it’s easy to dwell on the fact of the Resurrection and be so dazzled by it that we do not think much beyond that.  The mercy of Divine Mercy Sunday (yes, intended pun) is that now we begin to meditate on the meaning of the Resurrection.  Today’s Gospel gets us started.

When Jesus miraculously appears among the apostles, we find they are locked in a room “for fear of the Jews.”  These fellows have not lately impressed us, have they?  His closest friends (Peter, James, and John) slept instead of keeping watch and praying in Gethsemane.  …