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VICTORY OVER SIN THROUGH RECOGNIZING CHRIST AS THE DIVINE MERCY - stephenkhoo - 04-15-2012 02:41 PM
15 April, 2012, Second Sunday of Easter
VICTORY OVER SIN THROUGH RECOGNIZING CHRIST AS THE DIVINE MERCY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 4:32-35; 1 JN 5:1-6; JN 20:19-31
Like the apostles in today’s gospel we live in fear and thereby imprison ourselves. They were living behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. They were afraid that because the Jews arrested and killed their master, they might come for them as well. Of course, the other inner fear was the guilt they suffered from having betrayed their Lord. They could not forgive themselves. But note that the doors were shut from within, not from without. Only we have the key to open that door, but because of fear we prefer to shut ourselves from the joy of life.
But where does fear and division originate from? It springs from the individual who is hurt and broken by his own sins and the sins of society. Man lives in sin not only because he lives in a world of sin, but primarily because sin lives in him. This is another way of speaking about original sin. Trapped in sin and in a sinful situation, is there a way out so that he can be free and become capable of love?
This is what St Johnin the second reading is asking us: “Who can overcome the world?” The truth is, man is incapable of doing it. He is unable to overcome sin. Who then can overcome the world of sin? Only someone who is both God and man can do it. For this reason, St John says, “Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
Why is faith in Jesus as the Son of God so necessary for us to overcome the world? Unless we experience God’s divine mercy in our lives, we cannot give what we have not got. Only God who loves and forgives us unconditionally can heal the brokenness in our lives. In today’s gospel, Jesus the Risen Lord appeared to the disciples as the Crucified Lord with all His wounds suffered at the crucifixion. In showing His wounds to the disciples, He was using His wounds to heal them of their hurts and fears. By identifying Himself as the Crucified Lord, Jesus is revealing to us the divine mercy of God.
In proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God, we are claiming that Jesus is the Divine Mercy of God. This explains whySt Thomas represents the height of faith when he confessed in Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” Upon seeing His wounds, he immediately recognized that such a man who was crucified and now raised is certainly the mercy of God in person!
Indeed, the centrality of Christian faith is in this confession of Jesus as the Son of God. At the end of the gospel,St John wrote, “There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.”
But how can we know that Jesus is the Son of God? The answer to this question will determine whether we have encountered Divine Mercy and Divine love. St John tells us there are three witnesses to this fact. He said, “Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God; Jesus Christ who came by water and blood, not with water only, but with water and blood; with the Spirit as another witness – since the Spirit is the truth.” But what does he mean in this dense statement?
Firstly, we are to affirm that Jesus Christ came by water. But why water? Water is a symbol of life. So to profess our faith in Jesus who came by water is to confess that He is the One who takes away the sin of the world by cleansing us from sin and by so doing gives us new life.
How did He cleanse us of our sins if not by reconciling us with the Father? This was primarily the mission of Jesus. His whole life on earth was to proclaim in word and deed, the Father’s unconditional love and mercy. In His preaching, especially in the parables, He taught the Father’s mercy through the parables of the prodigal son, the lost sheep, etc. In His actions, He forgave sinners, ate and drank with them. He came for sinners and the marginalized. He healed the sick and cast out demons from those possessed. He was certainly perceived as the Final Visitation from God and the dawn of the New Age where the Compassion and Mercy of God is revealed. Indeed, Jesus manifested His Father’s love and mercy for us by acting and speaking in the place of the Father.
Secondly, Jesus’ divine sonship is attested by the second witness, namely, Blood. But what is the symbol of blood if not the expression of one’s ultimate love for another, especially when it is given in martyrdom? So to speak of the blood of Jesus is to contemplate on His passion and death for us. In Jesus’ suffering death, He revealed to us the depth of God’s love for us. At the same time, His death reveals the seriousness of sin and what sin can do.
Thirdly, we have the witness of the Holy Spirit. It is clear that without the Holy Spirit, Jesus would not have been raised from the dead and given new life. It is in the power of the Holy Spirit that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. In the Spirit, Jesus was given new life so that He could share that life with us. The Holy Spirit therefore played a very important part in the resurrection of Jesus. Also of importance is that in the resurrection neither death nor sin is the last word. Death and sin have been overcome by life and love.
Subsequently, after the resurrection, there was a deeper understanding of Jesus. In the light of His life, death and resurrection, and through the help of the Holy Spirit, the early Christians came to see more clearly that Jesus was not simply a good man but truly the Son of God. For if the Father had raised Jesus from the dead, it would mean that the Father has set his seal on all that Jesus taught and did and that the implicit claims of Jesus as acting on behalf of the Father are now justified and vindicated.
Consequently, without doubt, Jesus is now manifested as the Divine Mercy and Love of God. Not surprisingly, the first act of the Risen Lord when He met His disciples was to offer them peace and reconciliation. We read that “in the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and showed them his hands and his side.”
But with this confession of Jesus’ divinity, we need to re-look at the whole life of Jesus from the perspective of His Incarnation and Passion. We would not fully understand the implications of His death and resurrection if we only examine the life of Jesus from the perspective of how He revealed the mercy of God. We must reflect further on how the Father revealed Himself in Jesus as the Divine Mercy and Love for the world. Since the Resurrection proves His Divine Sonship, then it means that Jesus, the Eternal Word of God, must have loved us so much as to humble Himself to assume our humanity to be one of us. As if this was not sufficient, He became a slave, and not only a slave, but even unto death.
And as we reflect deeper into this mystery of the Divine Word in the human Jesus, we can also locate His Passion, not in this world but within the mystery of God Himself. Since Jesus was God even when He was on earth, His death on the cross must have caused the death of the Father as well. This is not to say that the Father and the Second Person of the Trinity died. But we must affirm that the Father suffered the death of His Son. For on the cross, the Father and Son were separated. In that separation, the Father and Son understood what hell is even though they had no sin. For what is hell if not utter separation and loneliness!
When we meditate on this act of God’s self-emptying on the cross, we cannot but be pierced in our hearts to think that God Himself, the Father and the Son would go through such agony for our sake. If Jesus had gone through hell for our sake, or made sin, as St Paul said of Him, then Jesus is truly the best judge, for He will be compassionate in our sinfulness, having experienced the profound misery and pain of hell. With this realization, how can we ever doubt the Father’s love and mercy for us? How can we remain ungrateful for His self-sacrificing love on the cross? How can we continue to remain unmoved without shedding a drop of tear?
Yes, today, Jesus is inviting us as He invited the disciples to see His hands and side which were pierced by the nails of our sins. And if you are just like that doubting Thomas, still unsure of His love and mercy, then He is saying to you as He did to Thomas, “Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.” To put our hands into the holes that the nails had made is simply but an invitation to contemplate on the depth of His passion.