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Second Sunday of Easter "Mercy Sunday" |
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| Background:
Often this Gospel is used as an
occasion to prove the Church's control of the forgiveness of sins and even to demand more
frequent confession. The Church, in this perspective, has a monopoly on forgiveness and
must be stern in its use. Patently this narrowly circumscribes the passionate forgiveness
of God which Jesus came to reveal. God may be generous with forgiveness, it is implied,
but the Church cannot and should not. Yet the story of Thomas, immediately after suggests
that such an interpretation of the words of Jesus missed the points. To forgive is not a
right to be jealously guarded, but an obligation to be exercised generously. We do not
earn our own forgiveness by forgiving others. Rather we manifest the generosity and
implacability of God's forgiveness of us. |
read the padre |
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Story:
Once upon a time, a man, attempting a
bank robbery, shot and killed a young woman who was a teller. He was a worthless man, a
drug addict, an abuser of women, a cruel, vicious, evil gangster. The young woman’s
family was Catholic. They hated the man. They could hardly wait for the trial. They sat in
the courtroom, their eyes filled with hate throughout the trial. When the jury found him
guilty they cheer. When the judge sentenced him to death, they yelled with exaltation and
exchanged high fives. They waited impatiently for the day of his execution. They told the
media that they would experience “closure” to the tragedy only when they watched
the lethal chemicals flow into his body and his face twist in death agony. They waited
years for all the appeals to be exhausted. In prison the man went through a conversion
experience and begged for forgiveness. The family refused to grant it. It’s a fake
they said. He just wants to save his rotten life. He asked for forgiveness from the
execution chamber. They spit in his direction. They cheer again when he died. As they were
leaving the prison, the dead woman’s sister said to her brother, I don’t feel
closure, do you? No, he said, I don’t either.
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