The Christian steward approaches life with an “Easter vision” rooted in gratitude for the salvation our Lord has won for us through His death and Resurrection. Today’s readings on this Divine Mercy Sunday teach us how this approach plays out in daily life and remind us that we can have complete trust in the mercy of God to lead us, step by step, to heaven.
 
Certainly, it is challenging to live for heaven when the things of the earth — job stress, family crises, health troubles, political strife — loom large on the horizon. We can find ourselves becoming cynical like the Apostle, Thomas, in our Gospel passage today — until he had an encounter with the merciful Savior. We all recall the famous line from Thomas, who was not present with the other Apostles during Jesus’ first appearance after the Resurrection. Beaten down by the events of the last several days, Thomas refuses to believe that the others had indeed “seen the Lord” as they claimed.
 
Thomas stubbornly declares he would not believe their story about the Lord unless he placed his finger into the nail marks and his hand into His side. Yet, these doubts did not repel our Lord. They actually drew Him to Thomas in an extraordinary way. Our merciful Lord saw that beneath the hubris in Thomas’ statement were pain and disappointment. Our Lord is mercy itself. And so He did not condemn Thomas, but calmed his doubts and fears, and allowed Thomas to actually touch those Sacred Wounds.
 
What amazing grace.
 
When we are tempted to give in to doubts about our faith for whatever reason, all we need to do is seek the Lord — in prayer, in the sacraments, through the encouragement of our Christian communities — and just as He did for Thomas, our Lord will mercifully restore our Easter vision and fill us with His joy and peace.

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