Commentary on the Gospel of

Fr. Roland Onuekwusi Chidiebere, CMF
2nd Sunday of Easter (Sunday of Divine Mercy). “A Community of believers, living divine mercy”

Today, we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. We recall with gratitude, God’s care for us: the outpouring of His love for us. This recall in itself is an act of faith; an acknowledgment and recognition that God is at the centre of our being. And with this profound realization we are able to join St. Peter in the second reading to praise our God and Father who has enabled us to give ‘a new birth to a living hope.’ Oh, how amazing these wonderful virtues of love, faith and hope rally around Divine Mercy! And the earliest Christian community built on them by:

  1. teaching as a community,
  2. breaking bread as a community,
  3. praying as a community,
  4. sharing their possessions as a community
  5.  
  6. Teaching what they believe as a community, they bear witness to the risen Lord! They transmit their experience of Jesus to the upcoming generation of believers – the practice of handing on tradition! They did not talk to people and say ‘hear us and go home;’ no, it was not theatrical, instead, they invited them ‘come and join us.’ They were not ashamed to invite others to come and have an experience of their living together because they were practicing ‘love one another as I have love you’. And that is why others pointed at them and asserted: ‘see how they love themselves’ – they are Christ-like, Christians.’ And so, they surrounded one another at moments of joy and or of grief. Should one be arrested for bearing witness to the Good News, the others would resort to prayers together, express their faith as a community, asking God to intervene, and of course He intervened.

They lived in the hope that He who provided for them would provide again. Hence, in that disposition no one attached oneself to what he or she owned. Instead, they put their belongings together and shared. They were not focused on the competition of who owned more than the rest! We still have a lot to learn from our Fathers and Mothers in faith. They less attached-to-possessions, the more we become like them. They embraced God’s mercy and let it shine out through their sharing, in the hope of providential supply, and it flowed for them because no body was in want!

O God, bless our faith expression realized in acts of charity, and fulfilled in our closer union with you, through our risen Lord, amen.

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