what's too good to be true?

Homily

2nd Sunday of Easter C2

Divine Mercy Sunday

24 April 2022

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

What's too good to be true?

Well, it's the Resurrection, obviously!

Now don't freak out.  I haven't lost my Easter faith in one week.  The Resurrection is the one thing I know to be true out of everything I know to be true.  On this truth I am still happy to bet all that I am and ever will be.

Yet it's also the thing I most doubt.  It's also the thing that's too good to be true.

Is there a contradiction here?  Yea, maybe.  Is there a paradox?  Yes, more likely!  Is there a risk of faith here?  Pray God, I hope so!

It makes sense that your deepest truth will be found where you have made the biggest risk of faith.  Don't take my word for it.  Take the words of the holy martyrs, who are willing to die even today for the truth of the Resurrection.  

Let me say it again.  Your deepest truth will be where you make the biggest risk of faith.  That's what faith is for!  Faith never goes against our reason, but strives beyond it, seeking to receive and understand truths that are beyond what my mind can figure out, manage or control.

That's exactly why my deepest faith in this strange, mysterious, profound, dramatic, and yes most true event of the Resurrection is also the thing I most doubt.

Even more strangely, Jesus is not put off by this!

On Divine Mercy Sunday, the Risen Christ appears in the Gospel to give peace, and to invite his disciples not to put away their fears and doubts, but to let them be penetrated by mercy. The disciples discover that in penetrating the open wounds of Jesus with their own hands, their own wounds, especially their doubts and fears, are also healed.  

This experience had most profoundly by Thomas makes him more than a doubter!  His honesty led Him to the most dramatic encounter with the Resurrection. That makes him my hero.  I dare say he is yours too.

Let's make sure we notice what kind of witnesses the disciples become after their experience of the Lord's mercy on Divine Mercy Sunday!

So it is with a good confession made during this Easter season.  Yes, you heard me right, confession is an Easter sacrament, given by the Risen Christ to the Church on Divine Mercy Sunday.  You can go to confession during Lent all your want, and this is all fine and good, but the best confessions are Easter ones, when we not only have our sins wiped away but the fears and doubts that give rise to sin are healed by a rick experience of God's mercy that makes us new from the inside out.

Jesus is not put off by your doubts.  He invites you into a deeper experience of His mercy.  Through it, the thing that is too good to be true may remain the one thing you know to be true more than anything you know to be true.

Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead, just as He said.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!