Divine Mercy!

Thursday, April 4, 2024

Acts 3:11-26; Lk 24:35-48

Today’s Gospel highlights the forgiving presence of Jesus among his disciples. 

His greeting ‘Peace be with you,’ offers both consolation and forgiveness. By offering forgiveness, Jesus takes away their guilt of betraying and deserting him at the time of his passion.  

Jesus’ gesture disregards the disbelief and confusion of his disciples so that he patiently explains the Scriptures to them regarding the prophecy of Christ. 

The risen Lord’s beautiful gesture of forgiveness reminds me of an interesting conversation from one of the books of Paulo Coelho, the Brazilian writer. 

He describes it as follows: ‘I am in Sydney harbour, looking at the beautiful bridge that joins the two halves of the city, when an Australian comes up to me and asks me to read an advertisement in the newspaper. ‘The print is too small,’ he says. ‘I can’t make out what it says. I try, but I haven’t got my reading glasses with me.’ I apologize to the man. ‘Oh, that’s all right,’ he says. ‘Do you know something? I think that God suffers from poor eyesight too, not because He is old, but because that’s how He wants it to be. That way, when someone does something wrong, He can always say He couldn’t quite see, and so ends up forgiving the person because He doesn’t want to commit an injustice.’ ‘And what if someone does something good?’ I ask. ‘Ah, well,’ laughs the Australian, moving off, ‘God, of course, never leaves His glasses at home!’ 

God is very thoughtful about our goodness but forgetful about our sins. 

Jesus’ gesture to the disciples confirms that God’s mercy is bigger than our mistakes. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar