Second Sunday of Easter (or, Sunday of the Divine Mercy), April 27, 2025

2025 Apr 27 SUN: SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 5: 12-16/ Ps 118: 2-4. 13-15. 22-24/ Rv 1: 9-11a. 12-13. 17-19/ Jn 20: 19-31

Well, a week ago was Easter Sunday, and after Holy Week and the Easter Triduum, I was ready to get away for a few days. That's exactly what I did.

And awakening Monday morning and learning that Pope Francis had died, I was shocked. Now, we all knew that his health was precarious. We had heard from his doctors that he needed at least two months of recovery. In other words, not doing very much. And at least I had a prediction that came true, and that was that he did not do the washing of feet on Holy Thursday, as much as that act means to him. But on that Holy Thursday, he did visit a prison very close to the Vatican. And we are aware that on Easter itself, he was present and made himself present. He was with us through Easter Sunday itself. And then, as we know, he died.

And we have had a great gift from Pope Francis in his 12 years as Bishop of Rome. I am planning to give you information on his various writings over the past 12 years. They are utterly beautiful and they are very easy to access. You just have to go to vatican.va. Of course, one difficulty with papal documents is they always have, or most of the time, have a Latin name, sometimes an Italian name. So that's always a bit difficult, but we have the bulletin at our disposal so we can make those very precious documents known to all of us. 

And here on the Second Sunday of Easter, we're getting started in the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Revelation. And it is especially significant that this first passage we have from Revelation includes Jesus. This is the one like a Son of Man, amid the seven lampstands that St. John sees. 

And of course, Jesus is present in this Gospel.

We have to understand that the good news, which we proclaim Sunday after Sunday and indeed day after day, is absolutely precious to us. In fact, our own faith in resurrection relies upon the witness of these people.

And we know that they were not just making something up. They tell us that they were surprised and amazed that this had happened, that Jesus was risen from the dead. He had told them this many times, but they were afraid to question him further about that. They were already in great sorrow when he said he had to lay down his life: he had to die. And so they are bringing us this greatest of good news as people who weren't expecting it. 

There's a theologian I rely upon a great deal who explains that you and I live in a world mediated by meaning. Well, what does that mean? We know we have our own personal experience of things, and that personal experience is extremely important. We also have what we call common sense, and then there is the world mediated by meaning. 

We can't personally experience everything that goes on in the world. Our ability to reason out particular things, that is quite limited as well. But then we have mediation by meaning, and by this is meant that so many things that we know are given to us by people who have had the personal experience. And for this reason, we understand the witness of the apostles to be utterly precious to us. This is the basis on which we have faith in Jesus' resurrection.

Jesus said to Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." Well, this is the vast majority of all Christian believers, all through the nearly 2,000 years since these events occurred. We want to develop a sense of being profoundly gifted. And in this way, we will be happy to keep passing on the gift.