Divine Mercy Sunday (2024)

Easter celebrations last week were wonderful. There was a good crowd at the 8 am Mass and a capacity crowd for the 10 am Mass. We even ran out of hosts at the 10. Easter isn’t just one day, though. It is a season of a week of weeks. We’ll be celebrating for six more Sundays until Pentecost on May 19. This week, we’ve been celebrating the Octave of Easter, which ends today. That means in Church World, every day we celebrated as if it were Easter Sunday.

In the English-speaking world, we are unique in our title for this season. Most Romance and Slavic languages call this season by a title that derives from the Latin term Pasch or Passion. We call it Easter, which is an Old English word for Spring. That’s appropriate because this is a season of new life in the Northern Hemisphere. Early flowers bloom, and the world is returning to life from a desolate winter, but Spring can be a fickle season with fits and starts. Then, one day, there is a breakthrough, and we know winter is behind us. That mirrors our faith journey and the history of the early Church.

Throughout the Easter Season, our scripture readings at Mass will remind us of how the Apostles and disciples struggled to live out Jesus’ message. Today’s First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles said:

“With great power, the Apostles bore witness to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus,

and great favor was accorded them all.”

Last week, I told you that during the Easter season, we will preach a series of homilies called Dream Big, Think Small. That was Jesus’ instruction to the Apostles and how the Holy Spirit guided the early Church. They were to make big plans for sharing the gospel but to do it in little ways.

I started the series by telling how Jesus is the most influential person ever. Despite being born in an out-of-the-way town to a poor family, never having written a book, commanded an army, held political office, or owned a multinational corporation, he is still the most influential person to have lived. To be influential means something is a force affecting others’ actions, behavior, opinions, and thinking. An influencer has the power to change world outcomes and other’s experiences. That describes Jesus.

We often take Jesus’ influence for granted and fail to appreciate and understand how fundamental it is in our world. It guides how we live our lives and treat one another. Jesus influences not only Western culture but the entire world. We base our calendar on his life; he has profoundly influenced art, architecture, music, science, and medicine. How we organize our communities, health and child care, and our delivery of social services are all based on our experience of Jesus’ teachings. 

Jesus even influences our world two thousand years later because he established a movement. His followers called their movement an Ecclesia. That is a Greek word, and it means a group of people who come together on behalf of the larger community to influence and impact that community for the greater good. In English, we call such a movement Church.

An Ecclesia isn’t so much an organization for the good of the people in the group as it is for those outside it. The Church isn’t to be a clubhouse for Christians but a movement to spread the Good News Jesus preached and to transform the world into the Kingdom of God. This series of homilies will focus on how we can understand better how Jesus wants to empower us, as he did his disciples, to become influencers for his message of Good News.

Empowering someone means helping them recognize their gifts and abilities. It encourages them to identify the qualities they already have and use them for their betterment and the good of the whole community. Today, we often hear this concept used regarding disadvantaged groups in our society. It describes efforts to help groups such as women and minorities break down barriers to reach their full potential. Empowering others to work to their potential improves all of society.

Today’s passage from John’s Gospel shows how Jesus empowered his Apostles on the first Easter evening. John wrote:

"On the evening of the first day of the week,

when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews,

Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'"

He said this to a group of followers who were traumatized. A few days earlier, they had witnessed their teacher’s brutal death on the cross. They felt ashamed by their disloyalty and huddled together in the Upper Room, fearing they might be awaiting the same fate. Several women and other group members came to them earlier in the day, claiming they had seen Jesus alive. Now, besides being fearful, they felt baffled by these reports.

When the disciples first saw Jesus, they feared he was a ghost. John writes,

"When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord."

It was evident to them that Jesus had a physical body. The same person they knew and loved.

We’ll remember when Jesus did something the religious authorities disapproved of, like healing on the Sabbath, feeding the hungry, or cleansing the Temple of Moneychangers and other commercial activities. The religious authorities would challenge Jesus and ask by what authority he had carried out his work. Here, Jesus shows the world his authority. Appearing in his resurrected body is the sign of his authority from God. His resurrection was the sign to prove to the world that he was God’s Son.

That first Easter evening, Jesus used that authority to empower the Apostles to become influencers. John wrote:

“Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.'”

As influencers, the Apostles received the authority to share Jesus’ message of Good News. They were to go beyond their fear, trauma, and confusion to bring Jesus’ message to others outside their small group. Jesus showed them that if he had overcome death, then if they walked with Jesus, they could feel that all would be well.

Jesus gave the Apostles more than just comfort and reassurance. He had bigger plans for them. Jesus stayed with the disciples for the next fifty days to empower them to form an ecclesia movement to reach out to others, empower them, and change the world to the Kingdom of God he had preached about.

John wrote:

“Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.'

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them,

'Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,

and whose sins you retain are retained."

Jesus commissioned the Apostles to be influencers to uncover sin in the world and to share the good news that sins can be forgiven.

That first Easter evening, Jesus revealed to the Apostles that God had bigger plans for them. They were to have a mission, and he wanted them to have the tools to accomplish it. Jesus gave the disciples the Holy Spirit and its gifts of love, joy, peace, faithfulness, gentleness, modesty, self-control, and chastity to be effective influencers. By empowering the disciples, Jesus wasn’t only permitting them but also giving them the tools and the enthusiasm to do it.

Jesus was giving disciples a bit of himself. He was empowering them. He recognized that giving himself to his followers would expand his sphere of influence. Jesus could have chosen to influence the world however he wanted, but he decided to do it through his disciples. He wanted to empower them to make his mission their own and transform the world.

Last Sunday, we followed the Easter tradition of renewing our Baptismal Promises. We all announced our recommitment to following Jesus and accepting the grace to be God’s influencers and serve in God’s ecclesia movement. We received the call to invite and empower others to work with us in this faith movement.

Over the last few months, Holy Redeemer has been organizing Small Faith Sharing groups to be the way to become more influential disciples of Jesus. Small Groups will help participants grow in their faith, strengthen their feelings of community, and, most importantly, recognize our authority to share our faith and influence the faith of others.

Since the Catholic Church operates with a hierarchical system, it might seem radical to think the Church wants to share authority, but it is fundamental to our faith. Our Catholic faith teaches that we all share authority with Jesus Christ. We were baptized priests, prophets, and kings who have a share of Jesus’ power.

For the Ecclesia group we call the Church and, specifically, Holy Redeemer Parish to grow, we need to empower parishioners, and in turn, they must be receptive to being empowered. To become empowered, parishioners must overcome a tendency to have a consumer mentality about their faith. The mindset that we are only here to get a shot of grace, punch our ticket, and then be on our way until next week isn’t being one of Jesus’ influencers. An empowered Christian surrenders their hardness of heart and recognizes their responsibility to build up their faith community.

Regardless of whether you are a full-time parishioner, a seasonal one, or only participate occasionally, everyone must claim their role of being Jesus’ influencers. We must embrace our influencer role by investing and inviting lapsed Catholics and unchurched friends and neighbors to become faithful disciples. Invest in your relationship with our family, who no longer attend Mass faithfully. When you see an opportunity, invite them to come to Mass with you. Summer is right around the corner, and many will have houseguests. That is an excellent opportunity to be an influencer and invite them to Mass with you.

We’ll be back in a renovated Holy Redeemer Church soon. The project aims to make our church more accessible and inviting to all. More hospitable physically and more welcoming. Holy Redeemer has so many visitors, and we have the opportunity to be influencers far beyond our parish limits. When we make visitors feel welcome, they might bring that feeling home with them and cause it to grow.

Holy Redeemer parishioners have many opportunities to be influencers. We can help our world grow into being the Kingdom of Heaven. The kingdom Jesus established through His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. The one we commemorate during this Easter Season, a season of springtime for the Church.