2nd Sunday of Easter: April 11/12, 2026

Divine Mercy Sunday

Let’s engage our imaginations for a bit and consider that Jesus’ meetings with the disciples in the upper room after his resurrection could have gone something like this:

Peter, I’m surprised to see you here.  Did you not deny knowing me three times?  And yet you’re still hanging around as if we can still be friends?  And Andrew, how about if you finally get out of your brother Peter’s shadow and stand on your own for once?  And you James and John?  You sons of thunder.  Now do you see that real power is found in humility and submission to the will of God and not in seeking positions of authority?  And how about you, Simon the Zealot, will you finally get it through your thick head that  I did not come down from heaven to overthrow  the Roman empire, but to teach you  how to love?  And you, Thomas, I gave you the answers to the exam before it took place. I would suffer and die but three days later be brought back to life,  and still you doubt??  Weren’t you listening to anything I was saying??  Or how about the whole lot of you,  you left me alone in the garden and on the Cross, and now you are cowering behind closed doors. What part of this don’t you get?

Let’s admit, that on a purely human level, this could have easily happened, but it did not go down like this.  Instead, Jesus, gently, quietly, and firmly  said:  Peace be with you.  As the Father sent me so I send you. And Thomas, if you really need to, touch my hands and put your hand in my side, then go ahead, so that you CAN believe. . .

This is how the first encounter of Jesus went with his disciples not because Jesus did not remember all the things the apostles did, or failed to do, especially in the last few days of his life but because Jesus acted out of MERCY.

Mercy O God, have mercy on us.  Send down your mercy to set us free.

Way back at the beginning of this millennium, in the year 2,000, Saint Pope John Paul II designated this 2nd Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday.  Because, as Pope Francis once said, Mercy is God’s greatest gift to us.  Pope Francis said the mercy of God changes everything, it changes the whole world by making it a little less cold and a little more just.

Because mercy, by its definition, is a deliberate action to spare someone from deserved judgement or punishment.  It is an active, helping response to someone in need or distress.  And the greatest example of God’s mercy is Jesus paying the debt for our sins on the cross, providing forgiveness when punishment of our sins was deserved.

Perhaps this story can help:

There was a  young man in Napoleon's army who committed a deed so terrible that it was worthy of death. The day before he was scheduled for the firing squad, the young man’s mother went to Napoleon and pleaded for mercy for her son. Napoleon replied, “Woman, your son does not deserve mercy.”  “I know,” she answered.  “If he deserved it, then it would not be mercy.”

Mercy is getting not what one deserves, but what one doesn’t  deserve.  It involves showing compassion even when someone does not deserve it, or helping when not obligated, like going the extra mile, as Jesus once said in the Sermon on the Mount, or turning over your tunic when you were only asked for your cloak, or when someone slaps you on the cheek, instead of slugging them back, which they might deserve, you turn your other check instead, all to preserve unity or to foster empathy in order to repair a broken relationship.

With this in mind, let’s draw a comparison between ourselves and the apostles with the help of author, Max Lacado:

Do you really think you haven’t done things that have hurt Christ?

Have you ever been dishonest with money?  That’s cheating and stealing.

Have you ever gone to Church and sat in judgement of others who are there?   That’s being a hypocrite. Have you ever broken a promise to God or to someone else?  That’s being unfaithful.

Don’t you deserve to be punished in some way for those sins?

And yet here we are, still sitting here listening to the word of God.  Breathing in and out.  Still witnessing sunsets and hearing babies cry.  Still watching the seasons change.  There are no lashes on our back or shackles on our feet.  Apparently God has not kept a list of our wrong doings, in order to give us what we deserve.  Instead, we have been sprinkled with forgiveness.  We have been showered with grace.  We have been dusted with kindness.  We have been immersed in mercy. All because God loves us and will continue to love us no matter what, because nothing can separate us from the love of God.

And there is only ONE appropriate response to all of this,  Let it change you.

Yes, mercy is God’s greatest gift to us.  Because we know that our redeemer lives.  Sin, suffering and death have lost their power to overcome us. And so we must offer our thankful praise.   For we can look the cross right in the face and say, you don’t get the last word or the last laugh, God does, whenever evil seeks to convince us of its strength and power.

That’s God’s mercy.  Given to us not because we deserve it, but because Christ earned it for us.

And there is only one appropriate response: let it change us, so that we become instruments of God’s mercy:

Forgiving

Understanding

Accepting

Encouraging.

And empowering.

“As the father has sent me –so I sent you” to make the world a little less cold and a little more just.

Mercy o God, have mercy on us.  Send down your mercy to set us free.