Today in the Church we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday alongside of the 2nd Sunday of Easter. If we reflect a moment on the goodness of Divine Mercy, mercy that flows from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we hopefully see it as pure gift offered to us by the love of God. Divine mercy reminds us of the familiar verse we’ve seen over the years at different sporting events (except for hockey; they don’t care about this stuff), where a fan holds up a sign that says “John 3:16.” “For God so loved the world, that gave his only Son, so that who believe in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” That would be mercy in action. Not perishing, but gaining eternal life. Not being tossed into an eternal dumpster, but being gently placed into the most beautiful garden we can imagine. Divine Mercy brings us to that garden. We all need God’s mercy before we leave this place. Think of the best person you know. They may be sitting next to you while keeping that social distance…. Think of the most God-fearing, “perfect” person you know. Before they take their last breath, they will need a good dose of the mercy Jesus gave to the thief crucified next to him, promising him Paradise that day. With the circumstances we have going on in our nation and throughout the world, I can’t think of a more proper Church day for each of us to take a few moments, either by ourselves or together as family, to ask God to touch our hearts with his Divine Mercy. It’s a day for families to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. For those who don’t know it, you can easily find it online. And, maybe today can be the start of a solemn family prayer, as we all pray for God’s mercy to lead us out of this pandemic. The Apostle most in need of the Lord’s Divine Mercy today is Thomas the Doubter. And the Thomas image for today is this; he didn’t trust the witness of his friends who all agreed that Jesus appeared to them in the Upper Room. Like Peter before the crucifixion, Thomas became a denier. It’s one thing if it was Peter alone telling Thomas about the Lord’s appearance. Or just Bartholomew, or just Simon or Jude. But it was all of them collectively telling Thomas, “We have seen the Lord.” The response back… “Yea, sure you did. Was he wearing a Patriots jersey he found in the tomb? We know they were also dead at one time.” In Thomas’ unbelief, he mocked his fellow Apostles. Notice that the absence of Thomas from the room is the reason for his doubt. Absence and doubt are siblings. How does that speak about folks today where God is absent in their lives? Maybe that’s one reason for all this present upheaval. God is calling everyone back to Him. He’s seeking to remove absence, and replace it with belief. Where there is unbelief, it’s not the Lord’s choosing. But the choosing of the doubter. Or, the person whose life is just too busy for a few moments each day with their Creator. Where God is absent in our lives, we become first-class doubters and skeptics, questioning his presence. What closes the door of absence is belief. Do we believe the Risen Lord is present in our world right now as we sit in our locked upper rooms waiting for something great to happen? Something that will tell us for certain that the victory over this virus has been accomplished? Physically, it hasn’t been won yet. Most of us believe it will be. But spiritually, this victory has been won. It’s a battle that was won in the resurrection of Christ. Belief is a central part of our faith that is to be carried with us wherever we are, wherever we go, and whomever we’re with. Belief begins in the heart. So where the heart goes, so goes our belief. Thomas left the Upper Room for some reason. To shop. To get some exercise. To get away from the bad smell of 11 guys who haven’t taken a bath in a while…. When Thomas left before Jesus appeared, he took with him the bad odor of unbelief. His heart was void of belief. He refused to believe the words of Jesus, “And on the third day I will be raised.” Those words were to be carried with him everywhere. So, when Thomas returned to the Upper Room and was informed by trusting witnesses that they had seen the Lord, if Jesus was in his heart everywhere, the good St. Thomas would have believed without seeing. Just like we’re called to do right now. The first set of eyes for belief in the Risen Lord are not found in the head. They are in the heart. So instead of rejoicing with his fellow Apostles, Thomas sits in the corner and whimpers about Jesus’ bad timing towards him. Time for Thomas to grow up. And now is the time for all doubters to mature in faith and belief. We have a way of questioning God’s timing in events that directly touch our lives. There’s the appearance of God’s absence. The appearance that he walks by us without saying hello, or even looking at us, not making eye contact. It’s like, “C’mon Lord, acknowledge us! Acknowledge somehow, in some way, that you know we’re dealing with this! Come back to the upper room of this world.” The truth is, he’s here. “Where two or three gather in my name, especially on Divine Mercy Sunday and seek my infinite mercy, there I am in your midst.” Thomas is blessed because Jesus returned to cast away the absence and doubt that stole his heart. We are blessed because Christ is in our midst, but only if we believe.
From today’s reading in Isaiah: “I have set my face like flint.” Straight ahead. No turning back. There is no reverse gear in Jesus. The path is forward, and in the holy thoughts of Christ, “I will face whatever is before me this coming week, and I will remain obedient to my heavenly Father. I will have a few apparent moments of human weakness while my divinity remains unmoved.” The Son of God sets his face like flint this week. But in his humanity we will here, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We will see him sweating drops of blood in a garden when his closest friends could not stay awake with him for one hour. We will see him get hit in the face in the presence of the High Priest Caiaphas for telling the truth. We will see his body be torn to pieces by a scourging and crown of thorns placed on his head in cruel mockery. But he has set his face like flint. He will accept the world’s violence onto his body; he will cry out from the pain that accompanies the wicked violence; his heart will break a thousand times this week from abandonment, betrayal, and denial. But he will finish his mission come heck or high water. If a Cross is called for by his Father in order to bring people home so that our sins will not be kept against us eternally, then he will set his face like flint and “carry the tree.” We have, like Jesus, set our face like flint. There’s no turning back from this virus. We must set our faces like flint and move forward with determination, with wisdom, and with concern for one another. If we do this, we will imitate the determination, wisdom, and concern of Christ. When I watch parts of the news cycle, sitting just long enough to get the gist of where things stands with the virus, and not tuning in for hours on end which I hope none of us are doing, I hear enough in that time that touches on what’s called “the American spirit.” The American spirit has shown itself to be a spirit of resiliency and perseverance, a spirit of profound generosity at times, especially with natural disasters in other parts of the world. It’s a spirit of ingenuity, as we’re witnessing in the present circumstances where many companies have shifted their production from what they normally produce to what helps to slow a pandemic. The American spirit is, in many respects and areas of life, a spirit of care and concern, of reaching out, of accomplishing difficult work in difficult times. It’s not a perfect spirit by any means. Only the Spirit of God is perfect. And in our country, we presently need a good spirit, and the best of what this term accomplishes, so that we can move on to assist other parts of this world that grows smaller and smaller. But the American spirit must be built – for us – on the Christian Spirit. On the Spirit of Christ. It’s the Spirit of Christ that is the foundation of our lives, building up all other good spirits, including the American spirit. The Spirit of Christ is a greater and deeper spirit than the American spirit. God’s Spirit makes possible all the good of the American spirit. The Christian Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is the presence and movement that carries us through all the Holy Week’s of our lives. Beginning today and through this upcoming Holy Week of separation from our Church, the opportunity presents itself under the most unique circumstances to reflect on the determination of Christ. The One who sets his face like flint. The One who says, even to himself, “Be not afraid.” Jesus says, “I have faith that my Father will deliver, he will come through at the end of this week. That he will raise me up on the third day.” Even though the Lord is raised up in another way today with adoration and praises – “Hosanna to the son of David – Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” – and enjoying every minute of it, he knows full well that he must set his face like flint this week despite all the coronavirus to be thrown at him. And, we must do the same. We do the same with our American spirit. But much more with the foundation, our Christian spirit. The Christian Spirit, the Spirit of Holy Week, is our spirit that will sweat blood at times – something we’re all familiar with right now. The Christian spirit knows the sorrows of loss and abandonment. We’ve been abandoned by our normal routine of practicing our faith, or our labor, of school, of shaking hands and hugging. But it’s the Christian spirit of Holy Week, Jesus’ Spirit over these next few days, that keeps moving us forward to victory. Live in the Spirit of Christ this week like you’ve never done before. Incorporate our American spirit into our faith, for sure. But Christ is the way, the one foundation of our lives. He has set his face like flint. No human viruses are going to stop this Divine Person from winning his victory. The Son of God is determined. He is the source of our energy for this Holy Week. Thanks be to God.