In today’s gospel the disciples are anxious and understandably afraid. When Jesus appears in their midst, he addresses their need, wishing them peace. After this He breathes the Holy Spirit on them and there is a fundamental transformation in their attitude – instead of fear, they become filled with hope and understanding. And being strengthened in spirit, they become stronger in body and mind as well. As the Acts of the Apostles testifies, they were tireless in preaching the Good News to everyone.
Jesus attracted, and still attracts, followers from all conditions of life. Then, as now, those who follow him most assiduously are the poor and the sick. They look to Jesus for healing and for an understanding of a life that can be so hard – they look for mercy. Divine mercy is the gift that can penetrate every aspect of our lives if we actually desire it to do so. The mercy of God is the gift of His grace. It understands the reasons we do this or that. Justice is certain, Divine mercy sees behind that certainty – it knows better than ourselves what our culpability really is. Thus we can have the hope that Christ will transform us – will change us completely by the power of Divine Grace – foolish sinners that we all are in one way or another. Thomas saw the wounds that were evidence of how Christ had died; he saw and had the opportunity to touch the body of the risen Christ. The experience of death had clearly changed. The human body, the human mind and the human spirit could never be the same again.
How do we get to touch the Christ of the resurrection? The experience of understanding, of connecting varied moments of goodness and beauty, teaches us to see the Divine Mercy even in this life, and to see beyond our ordinary life. In our communities, in our families, with our friends and acquaintances – even in strangers, – in the wounded and needy, in the lonely and rejected – we can come to know God through what our eyes and ears and hands tell us, how they inform and shape our inner attitudes. God has given us gifts of physical and intellectual sense, through which we may come to know Him and the wonder of creation. But mostly we know the mercy of God through the life and love of other people – grace comes to us though other human beings. Our Risen Lord invites us to touch Him all the time, – it’s our response that matters.
