4 April 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”” John 20:28–29
Eight days ago the Church sang, “This is the day that the LORD has made.” Today, on the eighth day, the Octave Day of Easter, she sings the same psalm again, and the refrain falls like a drumbeat of mercy: “Let Israel say, ‘His steadfast love endures forever.’ Let the house of Aaron say, ‘His steadfast love endures forever.’ Let those who fear the LORD say, ‘His steadfast love endures forever.’” The first reading shows what that mercy does when it takes hold of a community. “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.” Luke places at the centre of this picture the preaching of the Resurrection: “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” And the fruit is very concrete: “There was not a needy person among them.” Easter faith is not only a conviction in the mind; it opens hands and purses. Mercy received becomes mercy shared.
St John's First Letter tells us where this new life comes from. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.” To love God is to love his children, and to keep his commandments, which “are not burdensome.” John then gives one of the great Easter sentences of the New Testament: “this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.” Not our cleverness, not our strength, but faith in the Son of God. Finally John speaks of Jesus as “the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood.” He is thinking of the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized, and of Calvary, where his side was pierced and “at once blood and water came out” (John 19:34). The Fathers saw in that water and blood the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, flowing from the Heart of Christ to give birth to the Church. On this Sunday the newly baptized of Easter night come to the end of their first week in Christ, washed in that water and fed with that Blood.
The Gospel is read on this Sunday every year. It is the evening of Easter Day. The disciples are behind locked doors, “for fear of the Jews,” as John puts it; the disciples were Jews themselves, and John means the Temple authorities who had handed Jesus over, not the Jewish people as such. Into that locked room of fear the Risen Lord comes: “Peace be with you.” He shows them his hands and his side, so that they may know the one who stands before them is the one who was crucified. “Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” And at once he sends them: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathes on them, as God breathed the breath of life into Adam at the creation, and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” On the very first Easter night the Risen Lord gives his Church the power to forgive sins in his name. The Council of Trent taught that in these words Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance. Every confessional is a little upper room where the wounded hands of Christ are raised in absolution and the same words are heard: peace be with you.
Thomas was not there. When the others say, “We have seen the Lord,” he answers with hard words: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later, on the next first day of the week, the disciples are together again and Thomas is with them. Jesus comes, says “Peace be with you,” and turns to Thomas with his own words: “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” The Gospel never says that Thomas touched him. It says only that he cried out the greatest confession of faith in all the Gospels: “My Lord and my God!” The doubter becomes the one who names Jesus God. Then the Lord speaks to us, who were not there: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” In Kerala this Sunday is widely called Puthu Njayar, New Sunday, and many pilgrims climb the hill of Malayattoor, where tradition says St Thomas prayed. And this is why the Church calls it the Sunday of Divine Mercy. The wounds that Thomas was invited to touch are not closed; they have become the open door of mercy. St Faustina saw the Lord with two rays streaming from his Heart, pale and red, the water and the blood, and beneath him the prayer every sinner may make: Jesus, I trust in you. John tells us why he wrote: “so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”
Theme: “My Lord and my God!”
Peace through the wounds, the Spirit who forgives, the doubter who confesses, and mercy that makes one heart and soul.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
“After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” John 20:20
Apply: Bring one fear or old hurt to the Lord in prayer this week and say to him: “Show me your wounds, and give me your peace.”
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:23
Apply: Make a good confession this Easter season, and thank the priest who gives you absolution.
“You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you.” Psalm 118:28
“Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”” John 20:29
Apply: At every Mass this week, at the elevation, say silently with Thomas: “My Lord and my God.”
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22–23
“Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.” Acts 4:32
Apply: Choose one work of mercy, corporal or spiritual, and do it this week for someone who cannot repay you.
The Risen Lord comes through our locked doors, shows us his wounds and gives us peace and forgiveness.
He leads the doubter to faith and makes his people one in mercy.
Take-home resolution: Pray every afternoon at three this week: “Jesus, I trust in you.”
Dear brothers and sisters, it is evening on the first Easter day, and the disciples are behind locked doors, afraid. Then Jesus comes and stands among them and says: peace be with you (John 20:19). No reproach, no anger, only peace. And he shows them his hands and his side.
Many of us live behind locked doors too: doors of fear, of guilt, of old hurts that we will not let anyone see. The Risen Lord is not stopped by those doors. He comes in, and the first thing he shows us is his wounds, the proof of how much he has loved us.
Then he breathes on them and says: receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them (John 20:22–23). On the very first Easter night Jesus gives his Church the sacrament of mercy. When we go to confession, it is the Risen Lord himself who says through the priest: your sins are forgiven; go in peace.
Thomas was not there, and he would not believe. A week later Jesus comes again, just for him: put your finger here and see my hands. And Thomas cries out: my Lord and my God! (John 20:28). The one who doubted most makes the greatest act of faith. The Lord is patient with our doubts too.
This is why today is called the Sunday of Divine Mercy. Jesus showed St Faustina his Heart, with rays of water and blood flowing out, and asked her to teach the world a simple prayer: Jesus, I trust in you. It is enough to begin there. And mercy, once received, must be shared. The first Christians were of one heart and soul, and there was not a needy person among them (Acts 4:32, 34).
So let us leave this Mass with three things: a heart at peace, because we are forgiven; the words of Thomas on our lips, my Lord and my God; and open hands for the poor. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. That blessing is for us. Jesus, I trust in you. Alleluia. Amen.
Children, Thomas said: I will not believe unless I touch Jesus' wounds. Then Jesus came and said: Thomas, come and see! And Thomas said: my Lord and my God!
We cannot see Jesus with our eyes, but we believe in him, and Jesus says we are blessed. Let us say together: Jesus, I trust in you!
God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast kindle the faith of the people you have made your own, increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose Blood they have been redeemed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. Let us also pray: Merciful Jesus, you came through the locked doors of our fear and showed us your wounds. Breathe your Spirit upon us, forgive our sins, heal our doubts, and make us one heart and one soul in your Church. With Thomas we confess you: my Lord and my God. Jesus, I trust in you. Alleluia. Amen.