Reflection on the Second Sunday of Easter (Sunday of Divine Mercy)

Acts 5:12-16 Revelations 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19 John 20:19-31

Several years ago, during the Easter Vigil Elaine Prevallet quoted a phrase from a poem of Wendell Berry’s.  He used the expression: “Practice resurrection.”  

In the last month, the daffodils and jonquils and pear trees have been practicing resurrection, and they continue to do so. Some of the fields are very green. Winter wheat is practicing resurrection.  Trees will continue budding and leafing out. Creation is practicing resurrection, opening itself to Easter possibilities.

Easter morning was not a joyful day for Jesus’ disciples. He was gone, murdered. How could things have changed so much in one week? The crowds were cheering Jesus on as a national hero. Then calling for his murder.

But, as the Gospels tell us, the disciples began to experience Jesus somehow alive and in their midst.  In the Acts of the Apostles readings today and during the past week, we find Peter and the other apostles practicing resurrection – healing people who are sick and comforting some who are disturbed. Peter only has to walk by so his shadow falls on one of those lying on a mat by the street, hoping for healing, and the person is cured. Peter is practicing resurrection.

Resurrection requires action on our part, going out beyond ourselves. We must practice resurrection. As followers of Jesus, we must open ourselves to Easter possibilities in our daily lives. We respond to the need of the person next to us. We reach out to someone who needs help. We act with kindness.  Motherhouse employees practice resurrection in their daily work here. Many of us experience that kind of practicing resurrection.

According to John’s telling of the story in today’s Gospel, the disciples on Easter night, two days after Jesus’ death, were gathered together behind locked doors. They were afraid — understandably. We can think how people must be huddled behind closed doors in Syria or in Lahore, Pakistan or in places in Haiti.

Jesus’ message is one of peace. Jesus is practicing resurrection, encouraging his disciples to be forgiving of others, assuring them they need not be afraid. Jesus continues to teach them and us.

We are called upon each day to be faithful to our own commitment, to that way given to each of us — our daily work, our retirement, our care for our families, our concern for those with whom we work.  That is how we must do our part to practice resurrection, to be followers of Jesus. As we move into Eucharist this morning, let us ask that the mysterious Spirit whom Jesus breathes out in the Gospel, the amorphous Spirit who permeates the entire universe and each of us, will show us ways to bring peace to this world of ours and to the lives of those around us.