Goodness beyond Measure

HOMILY: Second Sunday of Easter

John 20:19-31

16 April 2023

Fr. Ricky Cañet Montañez, AA

It is very common among charismatic groups to say… “God is good….all the time!” Can we all say it out loud? “God is good, all the time!”  Do you believe this? Raise your hand if you truly believe this statement. Really? Even if life is hard? Even if evil seems to be widespread in the world? Even if there is a war? Even if basic commodities are very expensive? Even if you feel like you are experiencing one bad luck after another? 

The answer is a resounding YES! We just articulated this in our responsorial psalm. “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love is everlasting.” (Psalm 136:1) In the Lord’s goodness, He sends His only Son so that we can be saved from sin. The ultimate sacrifice of God’s own Son for our salvation is something He did not have to do. The truth is none of humanity deserves God and all the wonderful things He does for us. No one, not even the saints, by their own merit, can say that they deserve God. It is God who of His goodness, chooses to love us and save us despite our failings and our weaknesses.

In today’s readings we hear all sorts of proof of God’s goodness to us. In the Acts of the Apostles, they describe the kind of harmonious living God desires for His people and in His goodness, He is said to have added daily to the number of those who were saved. (Acts 2:42-47) In our second reading, Peter praises God who gives us “new birth to a living hope”, “inheritance in heaven”, and “salvation ready to be revealed in the final time”.  Such everlasting gifts for such undeserving subjects. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

In the gospel, Jesus makes an extra effort for the benefit of His disciples to help them believe in His Resurrection, proof of mankind’s salvation. He showed the disciples the wounds on His hands and side. He even makes an exception for Thomas who was absent when He visited the disciples the week before. Jesus allows Thomas to place his finger on His hand and his hand on His side so he would believe that He was indeed, the same Jesus who was crucified. As people, we always tend to look for something tangible and palpable. It is not enough to see or be told about something. To be able to touch and feel something with our own hands, guarantees something is REAL. It gives a better understanding. The Lord lowers Himself so that people can reach Him. (Patuloy na ibinababa ng Panginoon ang Kanyang sarili upang maabot Siya ng tao.) In God’s goodness, He indulges humanity with signs and wonders that we may believe in Him. 

Today is also Divine Mercy Sunday. This day is important because what we celebrate speaks of another proof of God’s goodness. He cannot emphasise further that there is no sin so grave that He cannot forgive. He gives everyone an ultimate chance to repent and be saved by seeking refuge in His Divine Mercy. Despite the hardness of our hearts and our recurring repeated rejection of Him, we are still given a chance. By His sorrowful passion, Jesus obtains for us the boundless mercy of His Father. We can barely understand the logic behind God’s goodness and love for us. 

God the Father knows that we all can be likened to Thomas. We, too search for tangible proof of the resurrection. St. Paul reminds us that as followers of Christ: “We walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) Thomas was called to believe through the testimony of others who had the first-hand experience of the risen Lord. Actually, the gospel does not say whether Thomas actually touched the wounds of Jesus. We are simply presented with his response in faith: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28) — a profession of faith that contains the very words used in the Old Testament to refer to the one true God. Seeing with physical eyes is not enough, for in the post resurrection sightings, the disciples had their eyesight but did not readily recognise the Lord. It is seeing through the eyes of faith that brings recognition and encounter with the Lord and tangible proofs of the risen life in the Christian community.  Our first reading attests that Jesus was alive in those who devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles, who strove to live an ideal communal life, who broke bread with others, and who prayed as individuals and as a faith community. (Acts 2:42-47)

Today, Jesus is very much present in people who dedicate their lives to the work for peace and reconciliation and who share their time, talent and treasure with others. The risen Lord is at work whenever people feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, free the captives and comfort the sorrowful. It is not always easy to have a response in faith to the goodness shown to us by the Lord.  Let us entrust ourselves to Him that in His mercy He may increase our faith and bring to completion the work that He has begun in each one of us as witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Never forget that: “God is good…all the time!”