April 27th, 2025 - Second Sunday of Easter / Sunday of Divine Mercy

The patron saint of doubters is featured in today’s gospel. At first, Thomas refused to believe Jesus had risen from the dead. He stubbornly insisted on seeing and touching the nail marks in Jesus’ hands and the spear marks in his side. So, Jesus obliged him. And as a result, by the end of this gospel episode, Doubting Thomas becomes Thomas the Apostle, and he speaks powerful words of faith to his risen Savior, “My Lord and my God!” To have doubts is part of being human -- it is part of coming to a deeper faith in the Lord. Like Thomas, we all need to see, hear, or touch some evidence to believe, even if just the testimony or the word of another disciple in whom we can place our trust.

A mystic named St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun in the 1930s, has a testimony for you to ponder this weekend. Her evidence comes from a series of visions in which Jesus invited everyone, even the most hardened sinner, to trust in Him because he is Divine Mercy in person.  Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, a day in which the Church gives us a golden opportunity to acknowledge our lack of faith, struggle to trust, and the burden of our human weakness and sin, whatever that may be. In turn, it is a day to receive the Lord’s mercy in abundance.