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Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
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The first reading provides us with a description of the very early Church. It is a picture of the newly baptised faithful joyfully praising God and caring for one another.
The second reading is part of an address, written perhaps from Rome about 30 years after the Resurrection of Jesus, and addressed to Christians under persecution to encourage and comfort them.
In the early Church the 50 Days of Easter were known as the “Magna Dominica”, which means “the Great Sunday”, and the fifty days leading up to Pentecost were treated as a single “Day”.
The prominence of the Easter Candle, kept in the sanctuary, symbolises the Risen Christ and our faith in His resurrection. The Resurrection event itself is unique! In rising, Jesus did not simply return to a normal biological life, to die again later on.
The gospel describes the visible presence with which Jesus graced His disciples in order to strengthen their faith. The absence of Thomas gives Jesus the opportunity to say, “Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.”
The presence and power of the Holy Spirit is shown in today’s gospel passage by the action of Jesus breathing on his disciples, evocative of Genesis 2:7, where it says, “Then the Lord formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.”
Jesus’ obedience, even to death on a cross, brought us forgiveness and peace and restored life.
In baptism, we symbolically make that journey with Christ and we are reborn. The Holy Spirit is present in the world today, breathed forth by God, the God who is Love – breathed forth into all who are disposed to be sorry for sin, truly contrite, and duly humble.
The Collect (opening prayer) for today’s Mass addresses God as “God of everlasting mercy”.
The second Reading, for this Divine Mercy Sunday, refers to the mercy of God. God’s mercy elicits great joy in those who remain faithful and persevere. As children of God, we are called to be merciful – see the faithful depicted in the first reading. “If we want to be children of the Father and build a world of brothers and sisters, the real challenge is to learn how to love everyone, even our enemies.” Pope Francis (1) The Beatitudes also include: “Blessed be the merciful, they shall receive mercy.”
Julian of Norwich addresses Jesus as ‘Mother Jesus’ and describes how we have been brought back again by ‘the motherhood of mercy and grace.’ Julian says that the service of a mother is the most intimate, willing and dependable of all who serve, because it is the truest of all. Whereas, our own mothers’ bearing of us was a bearing to pain and death, Mother Jesus bears us to joy and eternal life (2).
The Collects, or Opening Prayers, at Mass provide us rich insight in our theology and spirituality. On this Second Sunday of Easter, as known as Divine Mercy Sunday, many truths about the Easter festivities are highlighted. Firstly, it is the octave day of Easter. This Sunday is also called White Sunday (dominicia inalbis), Bright Sunday, or Low Sunday. Historically on this Sunday, those who received the Sacraments of Initiation at Easter put aside their baptismal garment. The Collect has many of these baptismal references. Today we invoke God as a God of everlasting mercy, who in his compassion restored us to divine friendship through the life, death and resurrection of his Son – Jesus Christ. In the Sacraments of Initiation we participate, or enter, into the Paschal Mystery, into the life of Christ. We pray for an increase of grace or that divine assistance which the Sacraments of Initiation bestowed on us, so we may grasp and understand what has happened in the celebration of these Sacraments. We have been washed in the baptismal waters of our original and personal sins, we have been reborn by the Holy Spirit as adopted children of God, and we have been redeemed by his Blood, which we partake in Holy Communion. The Sacraments of Initiation are the start of divine life, that relationship with have with God. Eastertide allows us the opportunity to reflect deeper on this great gift of our relationship with God.
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
