Readings: Acts 4:32–35; Psalm 118:2–4, 13–15, 22–24; 1 John 5:1–6; John 20:19–31.
Our Lord shows his wounds today in the Gospels to the disciples and says, “Peace Be With You.” They’d all abandoned him when he needed them, and showing those wounds could have been to shame them, but Jesus wanted to communicate a message of mercy, not condemnation.
Sometimes we forget that we’ve been forgiven. Jesus in showing his wounds today says, in a sense, “what happened, happened, but be at peace, I forgive you.” Every sin we commit wounds Our Lord, and if we don’t realize that, obviously we’re not going to be asking mercy from anyone, and not showing much mercy when others hurt us.
Conversion means realizing we’ve gone off-track and hurt people along the way, including the people we love. Our Lord is always waiting for us to turn back to him and to offer us his peace in order to get us back on track. In every sacrament of Confession we acknowledge that we’ve hurt Christ and hurt others: we acknowledge the wounds and Christ tells us to be at peace, because all is forgiven. When we remember all the mercy we have been shown it helps us, in turn, to be more forgiving toward others. Let’s show Our Lord today that we appreciate his mercy toward us by being more merciful and helping to spread the peace of Christ, so that we can all be, as the First Reading reminds us, “of one heart and mind.” Let’s never forget that we’ve been forgiven.