His wounds open us to mercy…His wounds break our wounded hearts open to receive the mercy that flows from him…How striking that mercy and forgiveness of sins is connected to Jesus’ Resurrection…There is no life says the Risen One without mercy and forgiveness…This message must continue to be voiced and lived by all Jesus’ disciples and that includes us.

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 7:59
Mass: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31; Resp Ps 11; Jn 21:20-25

He is departing so that he may be with us always, through the Spirit…Departing and then returning in another way….a way that asks us to be aware, present, listening, listening in the monastic sense of ‘listening with the ear of the heart’.  This new encounter with Jesus had to be different for the disciples who knew him in the flesh…perhaps it was easier for them than for us, for our senses today are so directed to the outer, so preoccupied with things that are not ‘eternal’. 

• “I am giving you a new commandment: Love one another.   As I have loved you, so you too must love one another” (Jn 13:34).  What is new about this commandment that Jesus left his disciples with and he leaves us with?  We know the love of God was rooted in God’s covenant with his people: ‘My love for you will never leave you’ (Is 54:10), says the Lord.

‘Faith and Recognition’: could these two words together encapsulate what the Easter season calls us to?  From the second Sunday after Easter where we have the appearance before Thomas whose weak faith takes a huge leap when he recognizes Jesus in and through his wounds.  We recognize through hearing and we recognize through seeing.  Many of the resurrection gospels show us this: ‘They recognized him through the breaking of the bread’.  When the risen One says ‘Mary’ at the tomb, Mary Magdalene, through the voice calling her name, suddenly recognizes the person standing before her as Jesus.