Echoing the words of Deacon Rob last weekend during the Easter Sunday Masses – “we are glad to be here – the happiest place on earth”! For indeed, it was! There was just a different kind of energy, joy and hope in the smiles and eyes of everyone! How we wish it will always be like that, right?

But we are also aware of the first Easter story. Even with the Lord’s Resurrection, the Gospel narrative this Divine Mercy Sunday begins with an image of the disciples cutting themselves off from others, locked in a room out of fear. Fear can have an isolating impact on all our lives. The fear of failure, for example, can prevent us from taking initiatives that would result in our being more connected with others. Although the disciples’ fear isolated them from others, it did not isolate them from the Lord. The locked doors may have kept others out, but it could not keep the Lord out.

Especially in the past 2 years, most of us have experienced some measure of isolation. We have not been able to gather in the usual way, whether it is in church or in other settings. For some, the experience of isolation has been especially painful and difficult, such as those in nursing homes or in the hospitals. Many have felt cut off from others. Yet, even in those moments, we are never cut off from the Lord.

In the same Gospel passage Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” The Lord’s love for His disciples overcame their efforts to self-isolate. The disciples may have run away from the Lord at the moment of His arrest, but the Risen Lord did not run away from them; He stood among them: He stood there in all his risen power! The same Risen Lord stands among us today, especially in those moments when we feel isolated or vulnerable, when fear or anxiety seems to overwhelm us.

Jesus standing before His disciples is the embodiment of God’s love. That is how the Risen Lord stands among us today. He continues to show us the wounds that speak of the extent of His love for us. As Risen Lord, His wounds speak of the depths of God’s love for us: His wounds are the openings through which the light of God’s love shines upon us! Because the Risen Lord is also the wounded one, He knows our own woundedness from within. The light of God’s love shining through His wounds can heal our wounds; in the hope that we can also be instruments of healing to others.

Sempre grato,
Father Erick

(For Divine Mercy Sunday, 2022)