Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy) - April 12, 2015

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Sunday Gospel Reflection by Fr. Bill Grimm

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International

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April 10, 2015   

Living a Christian life takes courage. However, we need not search for it. We have it. Each Sunday when we join the community of disciples we take the greatest risk, that of meeting the Lord.

Gospel. John 20:19-11   
Divine Mercy Sunday  
Saint John Paul II

1. Pope John Paul II's Divine Mercy Sunday Homily

      www.divinemercysunday.com/popes-homily.htmCached

   Pope John Paul II's Homily On the first universal celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, 2001. Divine ... Saint Faustina Kowalska saw coming from this Heart that was ...

Divine Mercy Sunday.com

Pope John Paul II's Homily On the first universal celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, 2001. Divine Mercy: The Easter Gift "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore" (Rev 1:17-18). We heard these comforting words in the Second Reading taken from the Book of Revelation. They invite us to turn our gaze to Christ, to experience His reassuring presence. To each person, whatever his condition, even if it were the most complicated and dramatic, the Risen One repeats: "Fear not!; I died on the Cross but now I am alive for evermore"; "I am the first and the last, and the living one." "The first," that is, the source of every being and the first-fruits of the new creation; "the last," the definitive end of  history; "the living one," the inexhaustible source of life that triumphed over death forever. In the Messiah, crucified and risen, we recognize the features of the Lamb sacrificed on Golgotha, who implores forgiveness for His torturers and opens the gates of heaven to repentant sinners; we glimpse the face of the immortal King who now has "the keys of Death and Hades" (Rev 1:18). Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever! (Ps 117:1). Let us make our own the Psalmist's exclamation which we sang in the Responsorial Psalm: "The Lord's mercy endures forever!" In order to understand thoroughly the truth of these words, let us be led by the liturgy to the heart of the event of salvation, which unites Christ's Death and Resurrection with our lives and with the world's history. This miracle of mercy has radically changed humanity's destiny. It is a miracle in which is unfolded the fullness of the love of the Father who, for our redemption, does not even draw back before the sacrifice of His Only-begotten Son.  In the humiliated and suffering Christ, believers and non-believers can admire a surprising solidarity, which binds Him to our human condition beyond all imaginable measure. The Cross, even after the Resurrection of the Son of God, "speaks and never ceases to speak of God the Father, who is absolutely faithful to His eternal love for man. ... Believing in this love means believing in mercy" (Rich in Mercy, 7). Let us thank the Lord for His love, ........   http://www.divinemercysunday.com/popes-homily.htm